France-based Morgère has unveiled a new design of trawl door which is said to be “incredibly stable” and deliver “optimum efficiency”.
The newly designed ‘Exocet’ door includes a number of innovative modifications that results in almost 60% of the weight of the doors focused at the base, with the top half of the doors much lighter.
“We wanted to develop a trawl door that reduces fuel consumption and is more stable and easy to shoot. We believe we have achieved this with the new Exocet and we are delighted with the results,” said Michel Dagorn, director of Morgère.
The company says the strong materials used in the making of the doors means they are durable and last much longer than standard steel doors, bringing further cost benefits.
During fishing trails by 25m Ecume des Jours, the Exocet doors used were the same weight and size as the standard steel doors used by the vessel. However, with the same angle of attack, the Exocet achieved 10% more spread of the trawl opening. In order to keep the same spread as previously experienced by Ecume des Jours, the angle of attack of the doors needed to be reduced considerably to around 25°, significantly reducing the drag forces experienced by the vessel.
Dominique Thomas, skipper of Ecume des Jours praised the new doors: "Despite the finesse of the sheet metal at the top, the overall condition of the doors after six months of use is much better than the previous generation doors. This is primarily due to the stability of the doors which is truly exceptional - they do not fall outward thanks to the weight concentrated at the bottom.
“With three backstrops we are able to work the doors at an angle of attack of less than 30°. I'm really pleased with the performance of this new product.”
The Exocet door is versatile and can be used in a variety of different trawl configurations. Although Ecume des Jours fishes mainly for groundfish, an experimental rig for pelagic fishing was also tested, using simultaneously the pair of Exocet doors plus two aluminium doors. This configuration also fished well.
