An innovative design has been put forward for use on fishing vessels in Australia.

Leading Australian boat designer Paul Bury has released concept drawings for a 20m fishing boat that can be configured to efficiently work different types of fishing gear. The design would be the largest Australian working vessel under a measured length of 20m.

The vessel design features an ‘inverted axe’ bow for a long waterline length. This provides better seakeeping and reduced vessel pitching and lower resistance, which brings about fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions.

The 12.6m-long working deck is huge for such a small vessel and is configurable to individual operators’ requirements. The 110m³ fish room is enormous for such a small vessel and has 150mm insulated walls suitable for frozen fish storage. A total of seven crew can be housed on board with up to six crew accommodated in twin-share cabins with the master in a separate cabin off the bridge.

Rather than a normal diesel engine, a diesel-electric drive system produces electricity that powers an electric engine. This is the same system used in many trains and submarines. Fewer combustion engines on the vessel mean lowered fuel and maintenance costs.

Electrical motors are simpler than combustion engines and can often be switched out with a faulty motor sent for repair after being replaced by a new motor. This is especially important for vessels like squid jiggers who use large amounts of power for lights used to attract squid but also for fishing methods that use winches.

Twin propellers mean that the vessel is highly manoeuvrable and doesn’t need a bow thruster.

The concept is presented to gather comments and expressions of interest from commercial operators interested in updating their existing vessel or adding a new boat to their current fleet.

These vessels will be built in Thailand by an Australian owned yard with Australian build supervisors and surveyors to current AMSA / NSCV standards. The vessel build is currently being priced.

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