The Gardenstown partnership of John and Zander Nicol went to Macduff Shipyards for their third newbuild, taking delivery of the new Steadfast Hope in early March, which replaces the 2001-built Flourish.
Skippered by Zander Nicol, Steadfast Hope BF-340 is built to the same design as the Rebecca FR-143 which was completed by the yard at the end of last year for Adam Tate, and like Rebecca, is built primarily to target nephrops with twin-rig trawl gear, as well as operating as a pair seiner on whitefish for part of the year opposite John Nicol on the Fruitful Vine BF-240, which the same yard built in 2010.
The design is the yard’s new model of twin rig trawler, with a double chine hull form and a bulbous bow, and also featuring a host of new design changes to the hull form based on CFD research to improve efficiency for both trawling and steaming.
Overall length is 24 metres, the beam is 7.40 metres, with the whole vessel built in Lloyds Grade A steel, with the exception of the wheelhouse and masts. The steel kit for Steadfast Hope was supplied by Macduff Profilers using cutting information supplied by Macduff Ship Design.
The new trawler has a number of features included to meet the owners’ requirements, including a ‘bay window’ arrangement on the port side of the wheelhouse to provide a clear view over the working deck aft. The fish handling system, provided by Seagate Fabrication, is custom-built to suit Steadfast Hope’s operating profile of alternating whitefish and nephrops fisheries. This includes a total of six washers, 17 selection bins, two dedicated washers for nephrops and a dip tank.
A 300hp Cummins QSL9 variable speed auxiliary engine is arranged to drive the hydraulic pumps for the deck machinery with a Centa Drive. Emergency hydraulic power is arranged with a pump fitted to a large capacity PTO on the gearbox. Two Beta Marine generators are fitted, one to port and one to starboard, each based on a Cummins 6BT5.9D2(M) and Mecc Alte alternator, each with an output of 81.6kW, 415/3/50. Cooling for all the engines and the hydraulic system is provided through Blokland box coolers, supplied through European Marine. The 150hp T700 bow thruster is from Hardy Engineering and steering gear is from Scan Steering.
The yard supplied Steadfast Hope’s deck equipment, with a Macduff three drum winch in the forward winchroom and two split net drums mounted aft. Fishing gear is handled over the stern, but the codends are brought forward to be emptied into the reception hopper on the starboard side, with a gilson winch used to lift the bags into the lifting gantry over the hopper. The yard also supplied the anchor windlass and two gear handling winches.
Deck cranes are a Thistle MKB13 short post crane with tilting 24 inch power block mounted on the aft gantry for handling fishing gear, while a Thistle MFB8 Crane with a winch is mounted forward for discharging catches.
