Fishing Boat Design: New Crab Boat from Gaspé Yard

With the regulated catch quotas of contemporary fisheries, design versatility for a fishing boat can be important. A new 19.8 x 7.3-m (65 x 24-ft.) combination crab trap and groundfish trawler designed by NAVANEX for building by Chantier Naval Forillon, both of Gaspé, Quebec, Canada is a fine example of this. Owners, Listuguj Mi’gmaq Government, anticipate accepting delivery in April of 2022.

The steel-hulled vessel will have a raised fo’c’sle design with an aluminum pilot house. When crab fishing, the clear, aft deck will be capable of carrying up to 150 collapsible, 100-pound crab pots. When rigged for trawling, a gantry will be mounted over the stern with two net drums. A pair to trawl winches can be mounted on a platform aft of the raised fo’c’sle.

The designers have included features to make the vessel more comfortable for a crew of up to seven people. A bulbous bow, in addition to improving fuel efficiency, will help reduce pitching when working gear into a swell. A pair of stabilizers will be mounted, following a design first installed by Chantier Naval Forillon on the trawler Fundy Leader that they built in 2006. A number of these systems have since been fitted to other vessels. The stabilizer is a simple steel plate, hinged at the bottom on the bilge chine. It can be hydraulically raised flat against the hull or lowered to a horizontal position. The boat’s designer, Jean-Nil Morissette, explains that they function very well to dampen motion both when travelling or when working gear.

Propulsion power will be an IMO-compliant tier III, Cummins QSK19 producing 750 hp at 1800 rpm. To meet the IMO tier III emissions, the QSK19 main engine is fitted with a proven SCR catalyst. The transmission is a Twin Disc MGX-5222 gear with 5.04:1 reduction. This will turn a four-blade Rice Kaplan Skewed propeller with a 57-inch diameter and a 67-inch pitch. The prop’s trust is enhanced with a Rice Speed nozzle. This system will give the vessel a cruising speed of nine knots and a bollard pull of 8.2 metric tons.

A comprehensive set of deck equipment will include a Heila HLM 3-2S deck crane. For crabbing there will be a crab hauler, crab table, crab boom and crab block. For trawling, in addition to the two trawl winches and net drums, there will be a bag winch. The anchor winch is mounted so that the anchor will lower to the side of the bulbous bow.

 Auxiliary power includes a Cummins QSB7-DM genset producing 65 kW and an additional QSM11-DM engine producing 355 hp at 1800 RPM. This engine will drive the vessel’s hydraulic pumps and a back-up 65 kW genset. Main and auxiliary engines were supplied by Cummins Sales and Service, Quebec East, Cummins Canada ULC.

Crew accommodation will be foreword in the raised fo’c’sle with the galley and mess in the aft part of that cabin. The RSW-equipped holds will have capacity for 60,000 pounds of crab in four sections. An insulated bait hold will have a volume of 7.8 meters. Tankage will include 23,000 liters for fuel, and 7,900 liters for water.

Image courtesy NAVANEX /Cummins