Icelandic fishing companies Samherji and Síldarvinnslan have contracted with the Karstensen yard in Denmark for a pair of new pelagic vessels, replacing older vessels.
Samherji’s new Vilhelm Thorsteinsson will be delivered in-mid 2020 and Síldarvinnslan’s new Börkur is scheduled to follow at the end of the same year. Both new pelagic vessels replace older ones with the same names.
Samherji has agreed to sell its pelagic factory vessel Vilhelm Thorsteinsson to a Russian company, and Síldarvinnslan’s existing Börkur will be replaced. Built in Turkey as the 80.30 metre Malene S, it was acquired by Síldarvinnslan in 2014. This will be the first vessel for the company to carry the Börkur name.
The new pelagic vessels are expected to be built at Karstensen’s yard in Gdynia and brought to Skagen for fitting out.
The design of for a pair of 88 metre LOA, 16.60 metre beam pelagic trawler/purse seiners, each with a 3420 cubic metre capacity in 13 RSW tanks, chilled with double 1500kW RSW systems. Each is designed to have a pair of 3200kW main engines, a 3500kW shaft generator and a 820kW auxiliary engine. Accommodation is for a crew of 16.
‘This is a very exciting development and is part of our future vision of catching and processing pelagic species,’ said Síldarvinnslan’s managing director Gunnthór B Ingason.
‘It is clear that there are substantial fluctuations in our main fish stocks. As an example, we do not know if Síldarvinnslan can expect to fish 70,000 tonnes of capelin or 7000 tonnes in the next season. Fishing for blue whiting is increasingly focused on the stock in international waters, and this means there is a need for large, powerful vessels.’
He said that the present Börkur was acquired relatively recently, and it has performed well, but by 2020 this will be an eight-year-old ship.
‘The new Börkur will provide us with a vessel with excellent refrigeration capacity and all the equipment in board will be very good. The new vessel will have a higher carrying capacity and will be more economic in operation. The present Börkur has a 2500 cubic metre capacity and the new one will have 3400 cubic metres. We have looked carefully at the pelagic vessels built in the last few years and the ships built by Karstensens have performed well, and there is a great deal of experience there in building pelagic vessels,’ Gunnthór B Ingason said.
