Triple-rigger for Ísfélag of Iceland

Envisaged as a demersal groundfish trawler with options for trawling for shrimp or langoustines, Sigurbjörg was ordered by Siglufjörður company Rammi. In the meantime, the company merged with Ísfélag. This didn’t result in any changes to the trawler on order, other than the new vessel acquiring Ísfélag’s colour scheme and emblem.

The innovative design, with its pronounced inverted Enduro Bow, follows on from the successful operation of three 55-metre Nautic-designed trawlers that were built at the same yard for Brim (at the time, HB Grandi) and four 62-metre vessels built for Samherji and FISK Seafood at Cemre, designed by Nautic’s long-time collaborator Skipatækni.

These all featured Nautic’s Enduro Bow design and their performance over some years was enough to convince Sigurbjörg’s owners that this was the right way to go.

According to Hrafnkell Tulinius of naval architect Nautic, the Enduro Bow design provides a greater volume within the forward section of the hull, and the inverted rake of the bow means that bow pierces waves rather than hitting them hard, resulting in smoother passage and a much more comfortable working and living environment on board with no slamming.

“This design is in the spirit of what we did with Engey, Akurey and Viðey for Brim, and what Skipatækni achieved with the three trawlers for Samherji and Drangey for Fisk Seafood. These have all performed exceptionally well,” he said. “I’ve spent time at sea on board Akurey, and it’s nothing like a trawler with a conventional bow slamming into the seas in heavy weather. The crew hardly notice if there’s a storm blowing.”

Well equipped

Tulinius explained that the series for Brim were built with a 13.5-metre beam and were subsequently modified with the addition of a third winch for twin-rigging, while Sigurbjörg has been designed from the outset as a multi-rigger with four winches, opening up opportunities for triple-rig trawling for certain fisheries, and the 14-metre beam provides all the stability needed for weight of four trawl winches.

Sigurbjörg has a package of electric deck equipment supplied by Ibercisa and fabricated at its factory in Spain. Controlled by a Scantrol iSym 7 autotrawl, the four 270kW trawl winches have a 35-tonne pull and the winch system as a whole incorporated Active Front End (AFE) technology from Siemens, who also supplied the drives and electric motors, enabling regeneration of energy with very low harmonic distortion.

The 28 winches supplied by Ibercisa include a bank of six 55kW sweepline winches, three 75kW gilson winches, a pair of 55kW cod end winches and two 15kW outhaulers, as well as the two anchor windlasses and a mooring winch.

Its MAN main engine is a 2,040kW unit, derated to 1,795kW, powering a 3,800mm propeller. to provide a good steaming speed and a design bollard pull of 45 tonnes.

Streamlined handling

The layout places a pair of reception bins with a 74-cubic-metre capacity aft, from where catches are routed to the Klaki processing deck, which was installed during the build at the Celiktrans yard. Part of the design brief was for a clear space for the catch handling deck.

By incorporating some innovative engineering strategies into the steel structures of the hull and bulkheads, it has been possible to deliver a 285-square-metre space with no pillars of supports, making the design and installation of the catch handling deck a more easily streamlined process.

Klaki has delivered the catch handling system for groundfish, as well as an automated elevator to transfer processed and sorted catches in tubs to the 630-cubic-metre fishroom. This has capacity for 590 x 440-litre tubs, meaning that a full fishroom is a catch of around 185 tonnes of whitefish.

The chiller system for the fishroom and catch handling have been supplied by Kælismiðjan Frost.

Sigurbjörg has accommodation for a crew of 16 in four single and six two-berth cabins.