VESSEL REVIEW | Celeste I – French owner's aluminium boat for coastal whelk and crab fishing

Dieppe fisherman Romaric Gourvennec has taken delivery of Celeste I, an 11.97-metre (39.27-foot) aluminium coastal fishing vessel built by Cap Caval Marine at Plobannalec-Lesconil in Brittany. The boat was launched at Loctudy on June 25, 2025, arrived at Dieppe in the early hours of July 21, and was christened beneath the port's fish-market hall on July 26.

Celeste I replaces Terre & Mer, a smaller flat-bottomed whelk boat that Gourvennec bought from his former employer in 2019 after seven years as a crewman and two as skipper aboard it. The new vessel is his first newbuild, and the owners have invested more than €800,000 (US$900,000) in the project since starting the process in September 2023. Construction began in early 2024.

The vessel has a beam of 4.62 metres (15.2 feet) and a gross tonnage of 13.5. It is registered at Dieppe under the number DP.940192. It will fish by day within 20 nautical miles of the coast, leaving port around 04:00 and returning in the early afternoon, with a working crew of the skipper and two deckhands.

The defining feature of the design is its ability to switch between four fishing methods: pots, nets, dredges and longlines. Whelks and spider crabs are the principal pot species while scallops are the principal dredge target, and the boat can also work cuttlefish, mussels, sole, turbot, John Dory, cod, red mullet and whiting. The designer's brief stated that species caught off Normandy are shifting quickly with warming waters and that a small coastal boat requires this degree of flexibility.

Outfitted for multi-species versatility

Whelk remains the core business, as it was on Terre & Mer. Bérangère Patentini, Gourvennec's partner, who runs sales and administration for the operation, said the boat, "is also equipped for scallops and fish, when the whelk season is slacker." She said being able to fish other species, "is also security for us; if one day there is a problem with whelks, we will not be left without options."

The Regional Committee for Maritime Fisheries and Marine Farming in Normandy described Terre & Mer as less suited to diversification and presented the newbuild as part of a renewal of the Dieppe fleet. Celeste I is the port's first new vessel since the 15.95-metre (52.33-foot) trawlers Gloire à Dieu in 2020 and Daniel Auguste II in 2021.

Propulsion configured for improved efficiency

The hull is hard-chined aluminium with longitudinal strakes. The underwater form is drawn to minimise resistance and deliver clean water flow to the propeller, and all hull appendages are faired for the same purpose. The designer reports low fuel consumption while fishing but has not published a measured burn rate or trial speed.

The owner's technical specification lists the main engine as a Cummins QSC 9.0 set to 450 hp (340 kW) at 2,100 rpm. The vessel's official listing records a Cummins QSL9 rated at 128 kW, a figure that reflects the administrative power rating applied to French vessels under 12 metres (39 feet) rather than the mechanical configuration.

The engine drives a fixed-pitch five-blade propeller of 960 mm (38 inches) diameter through a ZF 305-3A reduction and reversing gearbox with a 2.423:1 ratio. The 70mm (three-inch) water-lubricated shaft runs inside a 110mm (4.3-inch) tube with a 140mm (5.5-inch) stern aperture.

The five-blade propeller was chosen for thrust when towing dredges and for reduced vibration. The propulsion group sits on resilient mounts and uses a wet exhaust, and the designer describes the result as a very quiet boat.

Fuel capacity is 2,500 litres (550 gallons), which is large for a day boat of this size. The tank was sized around a local constraint: Dieppe has no fuel pump on the quay and diesel is delivered by truck roughly every 10 days.

Ample working deck space on a 12-metre hull

The working deck is a flush arrangement of 34 square metres (370 square feet). Preserving that area on a hull under 12 metres drove the main layout decision, which was to install the two Bopp TS1 02-12-08 split winches below deck, directly beneath the legs of the gantry, rather than on the deck itself. The designer identified fitting this equipment into a hull with limited depth as the main integration difficulty in the project.

Two Bopp auxiliary hoists are mounted on the lower crossbeam of the gantry, a TCH 02 MF to bring the dredge inboard and a TCH 05 MF to lift it. The bulwarks are set wide enough internally for English four-bar dredges to come aboard over the stern.

The pot hauler is on the starboard side behind the wheelhouse, working with a stainless steel guide roller on the starboard rail and a hinged table protected with 20mm (0.8-inch) high-density polyethylene.

The net hauler is on the port side behind the engine-room access.

A four-grade whelk sorter with side plates, knives and knife supports handles the main catch. Patentini said shooting ramps are among the handling improvements over the previous boat.

Accommodation is for four, with four berths, a mess, a galley and a toilet. The wheelhouse gives a 360-degree view. The designer listed crew comfort and low noise among the vessel's main selling points.

The electronics fit comprises a Furuno FCV 295 colour sounder with a dual-frequency 50/200 kHz transducer and 10.4-inch display, an M 1835 radar with a 60cm radome and 10.4-inch screen, a Navipilot 711 autopilot, an SC 30 satellite compass and a GP 39 colour GPS with a 4.5-inch display. Two 17-inch 220 V LCD screens run MaxSea TZ Professional navigation software.

Communications equipment includes an Icom IMC 506 Class D VHF, an RO 6800 DSC/AIS VHF, a Yaesu FM 8800 E VHF and a portable GMDSS VHF. A GPS 406 emergency beacon is fitted on deck.

The boat is named for the couple's son, Célestyn, who turned four on the day of the launch. Patentini said they wanted to use his name directly but another vessel was already called Petit Célestin, so they settled on Celeste I.

The designer said a diesel-electric version of the same hull is now under study, with the aim of cutting fuel consumption further.