New Whalsay pelagic vessel Charisma started its fishing career with a couple of quickfire trips mackerel trips west of Shetland, reports Dave Moore.
The latest addition to the Shetland pelagic fleet, Charisma LK-362 replaces an older vessel of the same name that was sold to Iceland in 2018.
Charisma’s owners started a dialogue with the Karstensen yard in Skagen at the end of 2017 to discuss the options for a new vessel, and chose to go with a design four metres longer than the old Charisma, but incorporating significant technological advances – including greater freeboard and capacity to pump fish at the stern.
“Hitting the ground running underlines the reliability and quality Karstensens are renowned for delivering, and deservedly so,” said skipper Davie Hutchinson following Charisma’s first couple of trips.
“At every stage of the design and build programme, the level of professional co-operation and friendly support we have received has been exceptional. The layout of the boat, together with the quality of workmanship, more than speaks for itself.”
The hull of the 75 metre, 15.30 metre beam Charisma was built at the Remontowa Shipyard in Gdańsk before being towed to Skagen for fitting out, and was ready at the end of last year for fishing trials ahead of the handover and delivery trip to Whalsay – and its first trips in between rounds of heavy weather.
Charisma’s 2350m3 capacity is in eleven RSW tanks arranged to surround a central space where the pumping system, refrigeration machinery and vacuum landing plant are housed over three decks amidships.
Catches are delivered at the stern instead of the traditional method of pumping over the starboard side. Charisma’s owners also opted for electrical deck equipment for their new vessel - including an electric fish pump. This offers advantages in terms of energy efficiency, as well as being easier to handle and store. A single electric cable is more compact than the conventional hydraulic hoses – and there’s no hydraulic oil to leak.
The fish pump can delivery 1200 tonnes per hour and Charisma’s two electric-drive fish pumps on Charisma are a recent new product from Macgregor. The VFD pumps have a new geometric shape, developed to give better fish quality and pumping control, and are driven by an oil-filled and pressure-compensated electric motor. Charisma’s installation includes electric cable reels and a newly developed control system.
From the stern the fish are pumped forward to the separator and from there to be distributed to the allocated RSW tank.
Right from the design stage, Charisma’s owners placed strong emphasis on delivering maximum quality raw material by being able to bring down the temperature of catches entering the tanks as rapidly as possible to between 0° and 1°C.
Two ammonia-based Johnson Controls refrigeration plants positioned at main deck level to starboard of the centreline in the area between the central RSW tank trunking, deliver 2.6mKcal/h of cooling capacity, enabling pelagic catches to be brought down to the desired temperature of -1.3°C/-1.5°C in the minimum timescale.
Catches are discharged to processing factories ashore by twin Iras 4,200-litre vacuum pumping systems. Situated to port of the refrigeration machinery and operated by 4 x 87kW compressor units located in a dedicated adjoining room forward, the system has a delivery rate of 150t/200t per hour.
Electric deck
Charisma is the second UK pelagic vessel to go for an all-electric package of deck equipment, following the example set by another Karstensen delivery, Research LK-62 which was delivered in late 2018.
As well as the fish pumping arrangement, Macgregor have also delivered the complete AC electric winch system, with twin 90 tonne trawl winches and a pair of 95 tonne net drums.
The split trawl winches, with hauling/shooting speeds of 35-133m/min and 75-182m/min respectively, are positioned to be sheltered by the upper boat deck, and are driven by four motors (total power 606kW) and operated through a PTS-Pentagon Cbus EE system, a sixth-generation system developed by Macgregor for use its electric-driven multi-motor winches.
The net drums are each driven by four motors (total power 817kW) and 8 x 300A frequency converters, are mounted on the shelterdeck slightly offset to port. The gear from the forward drum is shot over a large-diameter stainless steel roller mounted above the aft net drum.
A 71 tonne lifeline winch for handling the bag, is located towards the starboard side of the boat deck aft of the split trawl winch and a 46 tonne tail-end winch, used for pulling the bag to the stern before the sock is taken up and attached to the aft fish pump, is positioned to port on the upper boat deck, in line with a dedicated sheave mounted within the mid-height trawl gantry.
Four auxiliary winches are mounted on the underside of the trawl gantry and on the boat deck adjacent to the net drums. When fishing in heavy weather, the single opening through which midwater trawls are deployed can be sealed off by raising a hydraulically operated vertical gate.
Charisma is fitted with three customised deck cranes designed and manufactured by SeaQuest Systems. Two identical cranes with a 4t/14m capacity are mounted on either side of the trawl gantry aft. Each is fitted with SeaQuest type PB02 powerblocks featuring hydraulic tilt and continual rotation. The cranes are positioned to be able to reach down to the main deck, to manage the fish pumps efficiently and to have reach over the stern to handle the trawl doors.
The forward knuckle-boom crane has a reach of 18 metres and is fitted with 4 and 2 tonne winches.
Pelagic technology
Swan Net Gundry’s Lerwick and Killybegs net lofts supplied Charisma’s fishing gear, including a 1024m dual-purpose mackerel/herring trawl with the forward section made with a combination of PE Over Braided ropes (PEPA) and Danline.
Kraftex frame ropes are used, in conjunction with SNG’s own Prima Overbraided footrope which has proven to be excellent for its abrasion-resistant qualities. This trawl has an eight-panel belly, providing improved water flow, stability, added strength and increased mesh opening, and Charisma is among the pelagic vessels using SNG’s 65 metre fast-flow brailers with a Dynice Handle System (DHS) and 44mm DynIce SK75 used for the splitters.
Charisma has also taken delivery of a pair of 1460m mackerel trawls and a 1280m dual purpose herring/mackerel net from SNG.
The winches are each loaded with 2000 metres of 38mm diameter Oliveira warp supplied by Selstad.
Scalloway company H Williamson & Sons supplied, installed and commissioned Charisma’s electronics with a main forward console comprising a Furuno/Böning video wall of five 55-inch 4K Hatteland pedestal-mounted screens arranged in an arc.
Charisma has Furuno FSV25 BB and FSV85 omni-sonars of which the operational frequencies are centred on 20kHz and 80kHz. Sounders are Furuno FCV 1900B and FSS1-BB units with species discrimination served by Airmar CM599 transducers. A Furuno CI-68 BB current indicator provides tidal data at five different depths. When tracking marks in heavy weather, heave compensation for the sonars and sounders is provided by a Konsberg MRU-3 motion reference unit.
Charisma’s trawl gear is monitored by a Marport net monitoring system feeding data from three Trawl Explorer and six hybrid catch, door and catch eye sensors. The Marport trawl monitoring system is integrated into the MaxSea TimeZero plotting system, displaying the position of the doors relative to the vessel.
