The first pair of Vónin’s new pelagic trawl doors has been tested at sea with some highly encouraging results.
Vónin embarked earlier this year on the development of new trawl doors of its own, with the Storm semi-pelagic doors undergoing testing on Greenlandic shrimper Akamalik, operating in the Barents Sea with very positive results from the prototype trawl doors.
Next up were the Tornado pelagic doors, with a 12 square metre pair on board Christian í Grótinum, replacing a 13.50 square metre pair of another door type.
‘As soon as the doors had been shot for the first time, it was clear that even with the drop in size, there was a significant difference in performance compared to what they had been using before,’ said Vónin’s Jógvan Jacobsen.
Previously Christian í Grótinum had used virtually all of its engine power to square the 2304 metre trawl, but with the Tornado doors the gear spread was increased by 20-30 metres, while the overall drag of the gear was reduced.
‘The doors are very stable, both in a turn and when towing with a strong side current,’ he said, adding that not only are the Tornado doors very effective, they also have an extremely low drag coefficient, resulting in dramatically reduced towing resistance.
