A group of companies in the Danish port of Thyborøn have been involved in fitting out a new trawler now fishing for whitefish in the North Sea, and which has capacity for industrial fishing during the season.
The Vestværft-designed Birgitte L-349 was built in Poland and towed to Thyborøn for fitting out, with Kynde & Toft as the main contractor, and who had the advantage of having been able to fit much of the equipment on board before the hull was brought to Denmark for completion.
Skipper Kim Mathiasen is more than satisfied with the job Kynde & Toft have done on the new trawler.
‘They can really build in Thyborøn,’ he said.
He had previously skippered another Birgitte, L-539, which is now at the Vestværft yard in Hvide Sande being prepared for Kim Knudsen and his crew to take over where Kim Mathiasen left off as he and his crew switched over to the new trawler. There are strong links to Hvide Sande, and Brigitte’s crew are all from the Danish west Jutland port where both Birgittes are expected to land the bulk of their catches as it makes sense to land close to home.
The new trawler provides a wider range of opportunities compared to the old Birgitte, including capacity for 480 tonnes of sandeel or sprat when fishing for industrial species.
‘This makes us more independent and we’re not limited by capacity to short trips, which helps to future-proof us and the boat in an industry that’s changing all the time,’ Kim Mathiasen said.
The new Birgitte measures 27.88 metres overall, with a 9 metre beam and it has distinctive Vestværft lines. It’s built for a crew of up to seven, has capacity for 48,000 litres of fuel and 31,000 litres of fresh water on board.
As the main contractor Kynde & Toft took on responsibility for delivering the completed vessel, as well as supplying the hydraulics and winch systems, complete with a Scantrol iSYM twin-rigging control system for automated management of the three trawl winches, and monitoring warp length, tension and drum speed, with a V-Sat connection for remote support.
Kynde & Toft also delivered the four net drums and the gilson winch, and the 1300XL deck crane is from TMP.
The engine room installation was supplied by West Diesel, with a 680kW Mitsubishi S6U-MPTK main engine driving a 3000mm Hundested VP12 propeller via a CPGD120 gearbox with an 8.05:1 reduction, and also fitted with three PTOs. According to Kim Mathiasen, the three-metre propeller means Birgitte has a modest draft, providing some flexibility in choosing landing ports.
West Diesel also supplied the two 125kWe John Deere 6068 AFM 85 units with Stamford generators that supply electrical power. The SFT4 bow thruster is also from Hundested and AS Scan supplied the ScanSteering MT2500 steering system.
Boatech delivered the complete fish handling system for boxed whitefish and for handling industrial catches, and Iras supplied the vacuum pump. Nordkøl supplied the two Buus ice machines, each with a 4500kg/day capacity and working with fresh water, as well as the fishroom chiller system divided into five sections and with a total of 1200 metres of pipework.
Birgitte’s electronics are supplied by SeaTech, with Simrad SU90 and ES80 sonars and a Koden CVS-FX2BB echo sounder. A Scanmar system is there to monitor the fishing gear, which was supplied by Egersund Danmark’s net loft in Thyborøn and Thyboroøn Trawldoor with a pair of Type 11 doors and a 2000kg roller clump.
The wheelhouse also has a pair of Sodena plotters with ENC charting and a MaxSea TimeZero plotter. Radars are Koden MDC-7012BB 12kW and MDC-7025BB 25KW units and the KGP-915 GPS and KGC-300 GPS compass are also from Koden, while the AP70 autopilot and the additional AP70 aft wheelhouse unit are from Simrad.
T&W El-service fitted the trawler’s electrics and the accommodation and fittings were completed by Agger Værft and Thyborøn Bådebyggeri.
‘A lot of solid craftsmanship has gone into this boat and we are 100% satisfied with the quality,’ Kim Mathiasen said. ‘Now we’re looking forward to getting started. Its important to keep up with developments and to be able to offer good crew conditions and opportunities so that we can attract new people into fishing – and I think a boat of this kind does just that.’
