Marine Harvest gets room to grow on new boats
Dutch boat builder Nauplius has started production of two newly-designed, innovative workboats for Marine Harvest Scotland.
The 19.3-metre long boats, due for delivery later this year, have been designed to ensure increased productivity and an easier workflow as MH Scotland expands its operations.
While a traditional landing vessel has the wheelhouse aft, the new boats, numbered N009 and N010, have a wheelhouse on the side. This allows the full length of the deck to be used for fish farming operations.
Nauplius said workflow will also improve because of the widened beam up to 7.25 metres, which makes it possible to install a larger HS Marine crane with a maximum capacity of 1,480 kg @ 15.09 metres.
Increased capacity
Both workboats have a larger depth, making it possible to install accommodation below deck with two sleeping cabins. The Volvo Penta main engines and the more-than-100% increased capacity of the generator, which is now 100 kVA with a front end connected hydraulic pump of 100CC @ 290 bar, will enable higher electrical and hydraulic power supplies on deck.
Nauplius said the workboat design was by Argos Engineering B.V., and the concept was "unique in the market". It added that the design is a cross between a traditional landing vessel and a Multi Cat, combining the traditional deck layout of a Multi Cat with the bow of a traditional landing vessel that makes it easy to load on slipways.
Other markets
"Due to the versatile design it is, with some minor adjustments, also possible to use this concept in other markets especially where quays are not readily available and slipways are more common," says Gerrit Knol, technical manager of Nauplius Workboats.
The workboat has an operational envelope of ??96 km (60 miles) from a safe haven. Nauplius said the concept of the vessel was also that it should be completely metallised and antiseptic where possible to minimise the risk of contamination to fish.
