DUTCH company Van Beelen says its thinner, profiled ropes and netting are selling well because they are improving fuel consumption and increasing towing speeds by at least 10-15 per cent.
Owner Dirk Van Beelen says they move through the water smoothly and "That is why we named our new ropes Enkalon Stealth Ropes." He says they are selling them to midwater trawl manufacturers around the world to hand splice the large meshes in their front trawl section. "The 3-strand ropes used previously always caused a lot of turbulence, which is only a waste of energy, burning fuel without increasing the vessel's towing speed. Now with our Stealth Ropes in the same midwater trawls, all customers claim a much higher towing speed and this [cuts] fuel consumption [by] 20 to 30 per cent," he said. Another benefit of the lower towing resistance is that the spreading force of the doors increases and this means Stealth midwater trawl opens much faster and further than the same size trawl with twisted 3-strand ropes.
The company says the production cost of stealth midwater trawls is also lower, particular the labour element because the splicing is done much faster. "Experienced people can do 70 splices per hour."
A new innovation last year was producing Enkalon Stealth netting with mesh sizes up to 12m without any hand splicing being needed, cutting labour costs even further to make a midwater trawl. The Stealth front trawl netting comes in various bright colours so it is easier to distinguish the four different panels in a midwater trawl, he said.
