THE LARGEST fishing vessel under the Portuguese flag is now in the final stages of fitting out by Astilleros Jose Valina in La Coruna, Spain.

She is Franca Morte which is due to undergo sea trials before her delivery.

Owner Sociedade de Pesca Miradouro had been discussing the idea of a new factory trawler for a decade, both with Jose Valina and other yards around the world and the Icelandic design company Radgardur.

Fernando Alcalde, Astilleros Jose Valina's commercial manager, tells FNI that the yard had already built some smaller vessels for Miradouro after which the freezer trawler project was reconsidered.

The result is one of the largest and most powerful demersal trawlers in the EU fleet. Unfortunately, she is being delivered at a time when NAFO quotas are looking shaky and fuel prices are going through the roof.

Designed by Radgardur Ship Consulting in Iceland, the 73.80 metre overall and 14 metre beam trawler Franca Morte will be based at Aveiro. She is designed to operate on a variety of species, from roundfish and flatfish in the NAFO area to cod in the Barents Sea and redfish in the Irminger Sea. Cod can be frozen at sea and this is frequently for saltfish production ashore.

Franca Morte has a factory deck developed by the owner in co-operation with a number of companies, her factory deck being equipped to handle a wide variety of species in freezing tunnels and her two spiral freezers.

Her freezing capacity is expected to be 45 tonnes a day and the ship has a main fishroom capacity of 1330 cu. metres and a second fishroom of 370 cu.

metres. The ship's fuel tank capacity is for 1100 cu.

metres.

Franca Morte's main engine is a MaK model 6M20 developing 2880 kW at 600 rpm to drive a 3800 mm diameter controllable pitch propeller turning inside a nozzle at 136.60 rpm via a Reintjes gearbox.

In addition, there is a 1200 kW Caterpillar genset, a 2000 kW shaft generator and a 350 kVA emergency genset.

The three towing winches aboard the freezer stern trawler are Ibercisa of Spain's Type MAI-370 units, with two winches located at each side of the deck and powered by 315 kW electrical drives. The centre winch is mounted on her starboard side shelterdeck casing and is driven by a 405 kW electric motor.

"The reason for the relatively big motors is that the vessel is expected to be working in deep waters and the owner wants to minimise hauling time, " Helgi Kristjansson of the Icelandic company Naust Marine tells FNI.

"The owner choose to install the ATW (Automatic Trawling Winch system) from Naust Marine in Iceland to ensure that there is stable and sufficient control of the single and double trawls when trawling in very deep and undiscovered waters."

This system consists of a winch control panel in the wheelhouse's aft console and a display in the main bridge console with trawling information and a panel for winch control when the system is in automatic mode. Cabinets with thyristor drives and other electrical components are located near the winch motors.

The smaller winches on board the ship are hydraulic.

These include gilson winches, outhaul and cable sounder winches and the net drum.

Ibercisa also supplied these winches, with the exception of the six sweepline winches at the head of her full-length trawl deck which were built by the yard, as was the anchor windlass.

There is a deck crane mounted over the main deck for handling fishing gear and for discharging, while a second deck crane is mounted on the aft gantry for handling the trawl doors.

Franca Morte's fishing gear is from Cosmos Trawl in Denmark, which supplied both groundfish and shrimp gear. The shrimp gear comprises three Cosmos 2005WB trawls in 2500 meshes. These trawls are supplied with Cosmos nylon grids.

For groundfish, Franca Morte has three new 472 mesh Cosmos 3000WB combi trawls, which includes some T90 netting sections.

All of these trawls are made in Magnet Green netting with Dynex rope used for the headlines, plus Hampidjan floatrope on the upper seams. Cosmos also supplied the codends, footropes and bridles as part of this comprehensive gear package, completed with the two pairs of 12 sq. metre, 4500 kg. Poly-Ice Viking-B doors from Hampidjan.

Operating company Sociedade de Pesca Miradouro has been involved in freezing at sea since the 1960s, when it acquired the freezer trawler Tropico which was the first of its kind under the Portuguese flag.

In the past, the company has fished extensively off South Africa and Namibia, but no longer has quotas in those countries' EEZs.

Instead, Miradouro runs vessels from relatively small inshore boats fishing home waters to freezer trawlers and pelagic longliners operating in the South Atlantic on swordfish.

The company also has interests in Mozambique and Guinea Bissau in shrimp fishing, plus some other species.

Miradouro is one of the largest fish producers in Portugal and it buys in hake and squid in particular to boost production at its processing plants in Portugal, manufacturing products mainly for domestic markets.

News

PORTUGAL'S TO EXPLORE BIGGEST FREEZER DEEP GROUNDS