The Karstensen yard in Skagen continues to cement its position as the leading builder of modern pelagic vessels with the latest delivery on a long series – and the yard also has a full orderbook for the coming years. New pelagic trawler/purse seiner Knester has been delivered to Austevoll company Knester AS.
The 75.20 metre Knester has a beam of 15.60 metres. It’s the Karstensen yard’s own design and it comes with a 2410 cubic metre capacity in its eleven RSW tanks. Knester’s owners are relatively new customers at the yard. A few years ago, the previous Knester was converted at Karstensen to stern pumping, which proved to be highly successful. The order for the new vessel followed on from this.
Based in the Norwegian pelagic heartland of Austevoll, outside Bergen, Knester AS now owns and operates two pelagic vessels – the new Knester and the older vessel of the same name, now renamed Steinevik.
The name of the vessel and the company behind it is derived from those of its founders, Knut Stenevik and his wife Henny Ester – Kn-Ester. The company took delivery of its first newbuild as it was established in 1967, and a second new Knester in 2007. The latest vessel is the company’s third newbuild, and Knester AS is today run by the third generations of the Stenevik and Eliassen families.
The new Knester is expected to operate on the Norwegian fleet’s conventional pelagic fisheries – trawling for blue whiting west of Ireland, and purse seining for mackerel and herrring.
Knester is built at the shipyard’s subsidiary, Karstensen Shipyard Poland in Gdansk, and the partially outfitted hull was brought to the Skagen yard for outfitting.
The deck is laid out with the trawl setup to port and a recessed net bin for the purse seine to starboard. The trawl deck is lifted by 500mm and the two net drums in a fore-and-aft configuration, aligned to the hydraulic stern gate in the transon with three hydraulic control rods.
The new vessel’s owners opted for fully hydraulic deck equipment, with trawl winches and fish pumps supplied by Karmøy Winch, and the purse seine handing system is a mix of Karmøy Winch and Storm Cranes equipment.
The twin 82-tonne trawl winches are controlled by a Karm trawl computer, and the warps lead to a pair of BlueLine blocks in the aft gantry and a pair of Vónin’s Twister trawl doors. The net drums are 110-tonne units, and there’s a full package of tail-end, breastrope and net sounder winches.
Karmøy Winch also supplied the 40-tonne purse winches and the 40-tonne Tristar Giant net hauler for retrieving the purse seine, as well as the 7t/12m net crane with a transport roller. The corkline and leadline stackers are ffrom Storm Cranes. There’s also a foredeck crane, a 4t/13m fish pump crane and a 5t/10m fishpump/aft deck crane. The 20-inch fish pumps are from Karmøy Winch, supplied with hydraulic and fish pump hose reeels, and the hydraulic package is completed by a suite of drives and power packs.
Catches are pumped aboard and pass through dewatering to be routed to the selected RSW tanks. These are chilled by a double PTG FrioNordica system with a 2x1300kW capacity. C-Flow supplied the vacuum system with two 4200-litre tanks and compresors.
Knester’s wheelhouse is outfitted with a Furuno BlueBridge, providing a synchronised and customisable display for all of the fishfinding, navigation and other electronics across its five 55-inch displays.
The big supplier is Furuno, with FSV-25 low-frequency, FSV-75 high-frequency and FSV-85 medium-frequency sonars, plus an Imagenex TS-332 trawl sonar, and the sounders are FCV-38 and FSS-3B units. The CI-68 current log is also from Furuno, while the trawl sensor array is from Marport.
On the navigation side, radars are from Furuno, as are the GPS compasses, while the gyro compass and autopilots are from Simrad. Knester has a double Tecdis T-2138A, two MaxSea Time Zero plotters and an Olex system.
Communicaton systems are Furuno and Sailor VHFs, StarLink and Telenor OneWeb satellite systems, and a Thrane Iridium phone. The satellite TV system is from Vico and SunnCom supplied the internal communications network and the CCTV system.
The 5400kW main engine is a Bergen B33:45L9P, turning a 4200mm Brunvoll Volda CP95/4 propeller via an ACG980/PS750 2-speed – 750/125/95rpm – reduction gearbox. Electrical power is derived from the 3200kW Marelli shaft generator and from the pair of Caterpillar gensets. These are a 940kWe C32 and a 565kWe C18. The configuration provides a take-me-home option, with the shaft generator able to function as an electric motor. This delivers a highly flexible set of energy options for a variety of operating patterns, from trawling at full power to searchng for marks or steaming.
Thrusters are 1400kW and 950kW units from Brunvoll, which also supplied its Brunvoll Volda Brucon 5 management system.
