The new Executioner, built at the Chantier Naval Forillon yard at Gaspé in Quebec has started its fishing career by taking its snow crab quota.
Dennis McCarthy of McCarthy’s Fisheries said that the new Executioner is the first newbuild to join the fleet under regulations relaxed by DFO several years ago allowing length limits to go from just under 65 feet to 89’ 11” (27m), and the newbuild replaces several older, smaller vessels, amalgamating their licences.
‘We’re very pleased with it, and it’s been trouble-free so far,’ owner Dennis McCarthy said.
Executioner is built to fish on groundfish with trawl gear through the winter, and to alternate trawling for shrimp and trapping for snow crab during the summer months, with those seasons both opening on 1st April – although this year delays in opening the shrimp fishery have meant that Executioner is already close to taking its whole snow crab quota.
The newbuild is designed for efficiency, allowing the crab quota to be taken in less than half the number of trips needed with older, smaller boats, and with the crab kept in a livewell on board to be delivered fresh to Newfoundland processors.
Executioner was built entirely at Chantier Naval Forillon to the yard’s own design, with an aluminium wheelhouse on a steel hull. It has a 26.54 metre overall length, beam of 8.23 metres and is powered by a 749kW Yanmar main engine driving a Rice Kaplan propeller inside Rice Speed nozzle via a Yanmar reduction gearbox.
