The original brief had been for a sister vessel to Eternal Light, which has been fishing successfully since its delivery in 2019 to Fraserburgh company Whitelink Seafoods. But at an early stage of planning, Macduff Shipyards offered a new design scalloper that would provide more deck and gear space, better crew conditions and greater economy.
Whitelink opted for the new design, developed with Macduff Ship Design to incorporate a more efficient hull form and a new stern gear package designed to improve fuel efficiency.
The 19.98-metre Eternal Promise has a beam of 7.40 metres and a fishroom capable of holding 33 tonnes of bagged scallops. This is an addition to Whitelink’s growing fleet and is designed to operate year-round in UK waters.
The Wolfson Unit was commissioned to run case studies of three hull forms – the first of which was based on Eternal Light’s hull to provide a benchmark for hull resistance, while two more hull forms used the same basis but with variations of the bulbous bow to help identify the best shape to reduce overall resistance. Both looked promising, showing a reduction in hull resistance at the test speeds of 8 and 10 knots, but with one showing a slight improvement over the other. Given the increased hull size and displacement for the new vessel, this was the one chosen.
Eternal Promise’s double chine form hull features a transom curved stern and optimised bulbous bow, and is built in steel, topped with the wheelhouse and masts fabricated in aluminium. The layout below deck places accommodation for the crew of seven aft of the engine room, the fishroom amidships and a large fresh water tank forward of the collision bulkhead.
At deck level there’s a full-breadth galley and mess area with accommodation and storage, an open deck and an enclosed whaleback with conveyors for handling the catch. The catch handling system built by the yard and Northeast Fabricators. The fish hold refrigeration system along with ice machine was supplied and fitted by Airo-tech Solutions Ltd and both are fitted in the forward whaleback.
The yard supplied a tailored package of deck equipment that includes a pair of heavy-duty split winches with Hagglunds compact CA100 motors, providing a core pull of 11 tonnes each. The hydraulic tipping doors, outriggers and catch conveyors fitted to both sides are all manufactured in-house by the yard. The two large Bopp gilson winches were supplied by JC Hydraulics and the MFB8 landing crane is from Thistle Marine.
A lot of careful thought went into selecting Eternal Promise’s propulsion package, and the choice went to a slow-speed engine to turn a large-diameter, slow-running propeller. The Masson Marine W6400 gearbox with a 7.446:1 reduction, coupled to the efficient Mitsubishi S6R2 engine results in a slow propeller speed of 181rpm at full throttle, or around 110rpm when towing at typical loadings.
The low propeller speed made it possible to make use of the advantages of a 2500mm, four-bladed, skewed Kaplan propeller, mounted inside a nozzle, both of which are supplied by Teignbridge Propellers UK. The propeller is 15% larger in diameter than that of Eternal Light, and is large relative to the vessel’s length.
Two engines on board Eternal Promise are IMO Tier III certified. The Mitsubishi S6R2-T2MPTK-T3 main engine rated at 480kW @ 1350rpm was supplied, and commissioned by Padmos, and has a dedicated SCR unit and urea/AdBlue system which allows the engine to meet the new, more stringent emission standards set by the IMO. Despite its large size, the SCR unit fitted into the engine room and has a high noise reduction rating of 35dBa, reducing the noise levels experienced inside and on deck by the crew.
The Doosan 4AD126 auxiliary engine providing 287kW at 1500 rpm powers the main hydraulic and backup electrical systems and is also certified to IMO Tier III standards. This also has its own SCR unit and urea/AdBlue system. Eternal Promise is the fourth vessel built by the yard to feature IMO Tier III compliant engines. A Mitsubishi generator set supplied by Macduff Diesels Limited has a rating of 98 kWe. As a backup, a 98kWe alternator was also fitted to the front end of this auxiliary engine, giving complete redundancy. Cooling systems for all engines and hydraulics are served by Blokland Non-Ferro box coolers.
The electrical systems were designed and fitted by RD Downie who also fabricated the switchboard and control panels for all the pumps and motor starters. In addition to this RD Downie also provided the fire, bilge and gas alarm systems along with the navigation light panel, and assisted with the installation of the navigation equipment. Woodsons of Aberdeen and Furuno UK supplied Eternal Promise’s wheelhouse electronics.
