Macduff Shipyards Limited recently signed over its latest newbuild fishing vessel Excel BF 110 to owner/skipper Derek Watt and his son Philip. This new fishing vessel replaces the owner’s previous vessel of the same name, which was also built by the yard in 2010.
It is intended Excel will fish out of Fraserburgh in the northeast of Scotland, targeting primarily prawns in the North Sea region.
According to Macduff, Excel is a new design of fishing vessel, designed between the yard and local naval architecture and consultancy firm Macduff Ship Design. At the owner’s request, the vessel has an overall length of just below 20 metres. However, as there was no requirement for the registered length to be below the “under-ticket” size, the bow was free to be optimised for maximum efficiency and is of similar design to that featured in some of the yard’s larger designs, such as Venture IV or Zenith.
The design of the Excel began in early 2021 with the contract signed in the spring, with the Watts keen to build a new modern trawler, a little larger than their previous vessel to offer improved comfort for the crew along with a bit more speed for steaming to the grounds and better fuel efficiency whilst towing.
At the same time, the owners were very keen to stick to a similar internal layout as their existing vessel as its working arrangement had been well proven over the years. It was also felt that this would help make the transition for skipper and crew to the new build smooth.
The yard again worked closely with the Wolfson Unit in Southampton who conducted a computational fluid dynamics analysis of the existing hull alongside a couple of variants of new concept models. This helped refine the design and ensure that a step forward was being taken with regards to reducing hull resistance and improving energy efficiency.
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