Upgrade for Devon shellfish
Offshore Shellfish, which is at the early stages of realising hugely ambitious plans to establish the Europe’s largest mussel farm off the coast of Devon, has purchased a new 15.2m workboat.
The vessel, called Alysée, is an aluminium Wave Farmer 1400, made by Alnmaritec.
“The Alysée has become an essential part of our business, which has now successfully completed its trial period. We are pleased that the equipment has proved itself through several severe storms, and this has given us the confidence to start building out the farm and to plan a dedicated harvesting vessel,” Offshore Shellfish Director, John Holmyard, told Fish Farming Expert.
The customised vessel was built to allow Offshore to access their offshore rope-grown mussel farms in Lyme Bay as quickly and fuel-efficiently as possible, have excellent manoeuvrability and provide a stable working platform.
Alysée is fitted with 3 hydraulically-operated davits along the port side, each with a 1 tonne winch and star wheel haulers on fold out arms, whilst removable railings allow a clear working area over the side of the vessel. In addition, she has a knuckle boom crane, capable of lifting 1 tonne at any point on the working deck. Large lockers are integrated into the forward end, either side of the central anchor locker, with additional deck lockers to the front and side of the wheelhouse.
Each of the two main Cummins engines has two sea water intakes, ensuring consistent performance even when operating with a lot of debris in the water. Hamilton water jets with Blue Arrow controls give excellent manoeuvrability, even at exceptionally slow speed – particularly useful for berthing in tight spaces, and of prime importance on an offshore mussel farm. An auxiliary engine powers twin hydraulic pumps, supplying power to the davits, crane, anchor windlass and mussel processing equipment. All three engine rooms and the wheelhouse are sound insulated to give a more comfortable working environment.
“The team at Offshore Shellfish came to us because of our expertise in building tough boats. They operate in a niche sector with very specific requirements in terms of equipment and modifications,” commented Simon Pullin, project manager at Alnmaritec. “It has been a very interesting and rewarding project for our team and we’re looking forward to even greater challenges in the future.”
Thanks to Holmyard’s ambitious plans to increase annual production to 10,000 tonnes of mussels over three sites that cover over 15km2 Alnmaritec now intends to develop a much larger vessel which could potentially allow the landing of up to 50 tonnes of mussels in one trip.
