The first of a series of new trawlers built at the Admiralty Shipyard in St Petersburg for the Russian Fishery Company is undergoing sea trials in the Baltic.
Kapitan Vdovichenko is undergoing main and auxiliary engine trials in the Gulf of Finland, while running speed and bollard pull are being checked, along with other ship’s systems.
“Sea trials are the most important stage.They allow assessing the work of the vessel in sea conditions and identifying the need for certain modifications, which, if necessary, will be performed before the delivery of the vessel to the customer,” said Dmitry Sapov, RFC’s director for fleet construction
The Admiralty yard is building ten of these 108 metre, 21 metre breadth factory vessels to an ST-192 design, while the lead vessel in the RFC new generation fleet, Vladimir Limanov, has already been delivered by the Tersan yard in Turkey.
The ten being built in Russia are under the government’s investment quotas initiative and are fitted with the latest processing technology making it possible to manufacture high-value products on board from herring and Alaska pollock, including producing surimi, which is new for the Russian fleet.
According to RFC, the new trawlers will be able to operate with greater efficiency, lower fuel consumption per kilo caught and therefore lower emissions than the company’s fleet of older vessels that date back several decades.
