The design of new trawler Venture IV for skipper and owner Mark Lovie led Macduff Shipyards and partner company Macduff Ship Design to some fresh thinking, with their new ideas backed by testing at the Wolfson Unit in Southampton.
There’s a longstanding relationship between Macduff Shipyards and Lovie, who has fished with vessels built at the yard for many years. This started with the wooden-hulled Venture, built by the yard in 1993 as Endeavour II. A few years later, he went back to Macduff for the steel-hulled Venture II (delivered in 2001), the larger Venture III (built in 2017), and now an upgrade to Venture IV, which was delivered at the end of last year – in time for a couple of quick trips on fishing grounds in the west of Scotland before Christmas.
Venture IV is a big step. It’s the largest vessel built at Macduff Shipyards, with the hull fabricated at the Finomar Shipyard in Poland.
Back in 2020, Lovie went to the yard’s design team with an interest in having a new trawler to replace his existing <24-metre vessel, and looking for better fuel efficiency, more speed, improved seakeeping and more comfort. The yard’s designers had experience in this direction with recent new vessels, and were in no doubt that all this wouldn’t fit inside a 24-metre registered length.
As they would also have to move beyond the 24-metre size bracket, the decision was taken to also investigate options for different bow designs in relation to speed and seakeeping qualities, and to enable to the full potential of the optimised hull to be realised.
The next step was tank testing at the Wolfson Unit, comparing two hull arrangements of similar length, in particular to compare a conventional hull with bulbous bow and flared stem against an innovative hybrid bow design with an inverted bow for the majority of the stem but retaining a small-flared portion to keep the fore deck dry.
Trials at the Solent University Towing Tank indicated a significant reduction in both resistance and motion when head to sea with waves, particularly at speeds above eight knots achieved by the modern design.
Following these trials, Macduff Ship Design finalised the design for a 34.5-metre, 10.5-metre breadth trawler featuring the new semi-inverted bow.
The steelwork was completed by Finomar in Szczecin, and Venture IV arrived in Macduff in late 2021, where the new trawler has been outfitted, trialled and commissioned.
Handover to the owners took place in December 2022. Now, with a few trips behind it, all the indications are that Venture IV is performing as expected – with increased speed, reduced fuel consumption, and improved seakeeping compared to the older vessel it has replaced.
Additional space
Venture IV’s dimensions provide more space for crew cabins and accommodation areas, better deck space, and a midships chilled fishroom that has capacity for 2,000 stacking boxes and a pair of 10-tonne ice lockers fed by twin Geneglace 2.50 tonne/day icemakers.
There are three Yanmars in the aft engine room. The 1110kW 6EY26W main engine powers a free-standing Mekanord 650HS gearbox with a reduction ratio of 5.44:1 which drives the Kumera Helseth 3300mm diameter controllable pitch propeller.
The low drag high thrust nozzle and the triple rudder system providing high turning force are from Kort Propulsion, who also supplied the KT300H bow and stern thrusters. The MT5000 steering gear is from Scan Steering.
6NY16L gensets each deliver 280ekW of electrical power. The main engine and generators are cooled via freshwater plate coolers. The hydraulic towing pumps along with stern thruster are also fitted within the engine room along with the main electrical switchboard, refrigeration and the ships pumping systems.
Venture IV has a stem-to-stern shelterdeck, of which the aft part is largely open and this provides a walkway around the perimeter and to the aft gallows while also providing shelter for the full-length trawl deck laid out with twin ramps at the stern with a bay for the clump built into the aft structure.
MacGregor gear
The package of deck machinery is from MacGregor, with port and starboard winches set amidship, and the mid-wire winch placed above and ahead of the starboard winch, with all three controlled by a Pentagon autotrawl.
MacGregor also supplied a set of 20-tonne sweepline winches at the head of the deck. three 12-tonne bagging winches fitted above the trawl lanes, two 10-tonne codend winches and two 13-tonne gilsons.
Twin 6-tonnes and three 3-tonne gear handling winches, a 3-tonne fishroom helper winch and the triple-barrel anchor and mooring winch are also from MacGregor, as is the 12.3-metre, 2.3-tonne telescopic boom landing crane.
Catches are dropped through deck hatches are the stern to the pounds below, for fish to be routed to the catch-handling deck, designed and outfitted by Macduff Shipyards.
Accommodation on board Venture IV is for up to 12, with the skipper’s cabin and a couple of two-berth cabins below the wheelhouse. The laundry, pantry and galley are above main deck level on the starboard side, adjacent to a large mess and lounge area, and four more two-berth cabins.
The wheelhouse extends virtually the full breadth of the vessel, providing excellent all-round visibility, and with a set of full-height windows fitted aft on the centreline, giving the operator at the aft wheelhouse control console a complete view of the trawl deck below.
