AWARDS 2025 | Best Prawn Trawler – Gracious – Macduff Ship Design & Macduff Shipyards
This modern twin-rig trawler designed by Macduff Ship Design and built by Macduff Shipyards for a Scottish owner is optimised for prawn fishing in the North Sea off Scotland.
Emphasising crew comfort and efficiency, a completely new hull form was developed to achieve superior seakeeping, reduced resistance, and better propulsion efficiency.
The vessel features a comprehensive catch handling system built in marine-grade stainless steel, refrigerated seawater tanks, and a 2.5-tonne ice maker. The design also includes a new twin-bladed rudder developed by the yard.
With excellent seakeeping characteristics and a strong focus on crew welfare, Gracious represents a thoughtful and practical evolution in Scottish prawn trawler design.
"She is a completely new design of fishing trawler built and designed in cooperation between Macduff Ship Design and Macduff Shipyards," Ian Ellis, Managing Director of Macduff Ship Design, told Baird Maritime. "Upon initial discussion with the owner, the decision was taken to develop a new hull form, with the aim of providing improved seakeeping qualities, high propulsion efficiency, as well as improved living and working conditions for the crew onboard.
"To achieve these objectives, the hull development was compared against previous designs by the Wolsfon Unit in Southampton, which utilised CFD technology to assess the hull resistance at a range of different speeds, as well as visualise where the major resistance was occurring. With this information, progressive design alterations were made to further reduce the resistance, and improve the wake that the propeller operates in."
The general arrangement of the vessel was carefully considered and set out to increase crew comfort.
Ellis added that the initial results from sea trials were very encouraging, with a satisfactory speed-to-power ratio witnessed, and the vessel "punching" effectively into head seas with little effect on speed.
"As well as the hull form, the general arrangement of the vessel was carefully considered and set out to increase crew comfort, with a focus on reducing noise levels and motions in the living spaces within," said Ellis. "The cabins were moved from aft to amidships, away from the propeller, which is one of the primary noise sources on board.
"As well as this, the galley and mess area were situated athwartships, above the cabins below, with no part adjacent to the engine room."
In Ellis' view, the redevelopment of living quarters into areas of the vessel that were previously unused compelled the Macduff Ship Design team to spend considerable time ensuring that the vessel retained its operational effectiveness whilst considering these new layouts. Careful consideration of noise dampening during the design and build were also areas of concern.
Even with these challenges, design, construction and delivery of Gracious were successfully completed early in 2025, which Ellis described as a year of new developments being driven by changing market needs in different sectors.
The fishing sector is ever changing with new regulations, which leads to uncertainty from owners and operators.
"The previous year was an interesting one with new technology and changes in many industries," he told Baird Maritime. "We have seen changes within the aquaculture sector with new systems and farming practices leading to requirements for larger more complex vessels. The fishing sector is ever changing with new regulations, which leads to uncertainty from owners and operators."
Ellis remarked that in the commercial sector, there is continued market interest in both new and secondhand vessels as well as retrofitting where appropriate.
For a list of the 2025 "Best Of" award winners, please click here.