Kjell-Gunnar Hoddevik and partners Johnny Årvik and Jan-Ove Langeland of Norwegian fishing company Atlantic Seafish took delivery last year of combined longliner/seine netter Atlantic, which was built for them in Turkey – the first time such a combination of fishing methods has been brought together in a new vessel. Now they are expanding, placing an order for a 43 metre seine netter.
The company has quotas at its disposal and as the owners needed more capacity to catch what they have available, they have placed an order for a new Polarbris, a 43 metre, 11.50 metre beam dedicated seine netter to be built by Karstensens Skibsværft in Skagen.
The new Polarbris will be built at Karstensen Shipyard Poland and brought to the yard in Skagen for the final stages of outfitting, with delivery scheduled for August 2023.
Some suppliers and systems are still being selected, but Polarbris will have a suite of electric winches and a propulsion system designed to minimise energy consumption and environmental impacts, with extensive studies being carried out to identify the most suitable options.
Like longliner/seiner Atlantic, Polarbris will have a Brunvoll submersible azimuth thruster mounted in the forward section. The advanced factory will come from Bjørdal and Teknotherm will supply freezing and cooling systems.
”The project as a whole has been created in a very close and intense collaboration between owners and yard,” said Kent Damgaard at Karstensens Skibsværft, adding that this is the first time that the yard has worked with this fishing company.
Fishing company Atlantic Seafish was established in 1997 by Kjell-Gunnar Hoddevik and Johnny Årvik, and is based in Ålesund. They started out with an older longliner, Fernando. The first Polarbris was acquired in 2000. The company has had six different vessels, of which the latest is Atlantic, built at Tersan in 2020.
The contract with Atlantic brings the Karstensen orderbook up to 14 new vessels to be delivered over the next two years, and the yard has already completed eight new deliveries this year.
