Big trips for Christina S

SKIPPER Allan Simpson and the ten-man crew of the new Christina S (FR 224) – at 72 metres the biggest mid-water trawler in the pelagic fleet based at Fraserburgh in north-east Scotland – hit the fishing grounds running when the North Sea mackerel season restarted in October, writes David Linkie.

The ship’s maiden 36-hour trip resulted in a landing of 1148 tonnes of mackerel at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. This was followed over the next ten days by two landings of 846 and 717 tonnes, again pumped ashore to Shetland Catch.

Christina S, designed by Vik-Sandvik of Fitjar, Norway, for Skipper Allan Simpson in partnership with his father Ernie and Peter & J Johnstone & Co. (Fraserburgh) Ltd., is based on a hull fabricated at Sevastopol in the Ukraine.