David Gatt and Barry Reid have taken delivery of the new Audacious BF-83 from Macduff Shipyards, a dedicated twin-rig trawler developed by the yard and expected to operate in Scottish waters in whitefish.
Development of Audacious began in 2016 with the yard and owners working closely together come up with a layout that would bring together a spacious working deck, a streamlined catch management system, good hold capacity and also be economical to run. As usual with a Macduff build, the development process involved Macduff Ship Design and CFD technology was used to optimise the hull form for fuel efficiency.
Audacious is of typical modern construction with the hull built from steel and the wheelhouse finished in aluminium, and was built to DNV approval. It has a 27.80 metre overall length with an 8.60 metre breadth. Tank capacity is for 48,000 litres of fuel and 32,000 litres of fresh water and the fishroom can take 55 tonnes of fish.
With the design was finalised, the first steel for the hull was cut in the spring of 2017 at a sub-contracted shipyard in Szczecin, where the hull was completed within five months before being towed to Scotland. Over the next year the vessel was fitted out extensively in Macduff where many sophisticated systems were installed from an esteemed list of suppliers before sailing to Fraserburgh in October 2018 for a final paint and where gear could be taken aboard. Fishing trials took place out of Fraserburgh at the beginning of November with both single trawl and pair trawl arrangements being put to the test with the vessel displaying promising signs of performance.
Audacious is arranged with a main deck, trawl deck and partial shelterdeck. At shelterdeck level aft of the wheelhouse most of the deck is open to the trawl deck below, while a passage on the starboard side gives access from the wheelhouse to the aft area where two bagging drums and the gilson winch are fitted along with a heavy gantry where three fixed trawl blocks are hung. To the port side an EK Marine 1.2t/10m knuckleboom crane is fitted for landing and general duties.
At trawl deck level, the deck is open from midships to the stern with two large split net drums fitted as far forward as practical to leave a large working deck area. At the transom the hopper hatch is fitted on the centreline where the catch is brought aboard and flanking this is a pair of hydraulically operated stern gates which can be lowered during the time of hauling and shooting when safe to do so.
Immediately forward of the working deck is an accommodation casing which fits a skipper’s cabin with en suite, a two-man cabin, switchboard room and a deck store. Forward of this accommodation casing is the winch room which houses three separate split trawl winches. On the centreline is a large winch with capacity for all the rope and wire warp needed during pair trawling and to the port and starboard side of this are two smaller split winches are sized for the warp used during single trawling.
The main deck which is split into three different areas. Aft there is a large refrigerated hopper on the centreline which is flanked by an engineer’s workshop to port and a dry locker to starboard. Forward of this is the processing deck where a sophisticated fish handling system was designed and fitted by VCU along with two KM Fish Machinery electric gutting machines. Also in this area are a dedicated ice making room and two 4.5t/day ice machines. Forward of the processing area is the main accommodation where a large galley/mess is fitted to port and four two-man cabins and a WC is fitted to starboard.
Supplied by Finning Power Systems, a 775hp CAT 3508C main engine is fitted by a flexible coupling to a Heimdal HGH595F gearbox with reduction of 9.438:1 which in turn drives a 2800mm diameter controllable pitch propeller turning inside a modern profile of nozzle to provide maximum thrust. Main hydraulic power is driven from a PTO fitted to the gearbox. Also supplied by Finning Power Systems were a pair of CAT C7.1 generator sets, each rated at 150 ekW.
As is becoming fairly standard on the yards new builds a triple rudder system is fitted with the vessel being easily manoeuvrable in port during trials and is expected to keep the required helm to a minimum during trawling. The steering gear system was supplied in full by Scan Steering.
Bopp supplied the extensive hydraulic package, including a single pair trawl winch with a 24-tonne core pull and capacity for 1000 metres of 24mm, 380 metres of 28mm and 880 metres of 50mm warp. The single trawl winches have an 18-tonne core pull and can hold 1650 metres of 24mm warp.
The twin spilt net drums have a 15-tonne core pull and a 16.70 cubic metre capacity. Bopp also supplied the two 6.5-tonnes bagging drums and 10-tonne gilson, plus the hold winch, anchor and mooring winch, as well as the 150kW bow thruster.
Audacious has an electronics package supplied by Woodsons Marine Electronics and Furuno UK
