‘People thought we were mad hanging expensive fishing gear on the ends of pieces of rope.’
It’s ten years this month since Guðmundur Huginn Guðmundsson, skipper of Huginn VE 55, took delivery of 2 x 730 metres of 36mm DynIce Warps and tried them out fishing on the surface for mackerel and herring. Hampiðjan provided the warps and Guðmundur Huginn used them until the spring of 2007 when they were replaced by a complete set of 2200 metre warps.
“What is particularly memorable is that we first had the chance to try these warps out on board research vessel Árni Friðriksson during the spring research cruise in May 2006. That was when they were first tested in Iceland. We did this by fixing them to the ends of the trawl warps to see if we could use them without having to take all the wire off the winch drums. That worked without either the DynIce warps or the wire being damaged,” said Guðmundur Gunnarsson of Hampiðjan’s fishing gear development department.
“We liked the warps right away and the lightness and strength of them took us by surprise. Not everyone had faith in the warps and there were some who thought we were mad to hang expensive fishing gear on the ends of pieces of rope, and they weren’t able to trust them not to snap and drop all that gear into the water,” Guðmundur Huginn recalled, adding that only once in ten years has a warp parted on board Huginn.
“The endurance of these warps is exceptional and we have only once replaced our DynIce Warps in ten years. The old ones looked to be fine, but we didn’t dare use them any longer. I upgraded to warps that are 2mm thicker and we have the old warps that we will be able to use for bridles for years to come.”
Guðmundur Huginn said that the crew’s work on board has been much easier and lighter since the steel wire warps were replaced by DynIce Warps.
“We reckon that our warps are 22 tonnes lighter than the comparable amount of wire. This makes a big difference as our winches are located high up and at the stern. There’s the advantage that smaller doors can be used that have the same performance as the larger ones with wire warps,” Guðmundur Huginn Guðmundsson said.
