VESSEL REVIEW | Celestial Dawn – Custom-designed prawn trawler for Scottish North Sea fisherman

A new prawn fishing vessel designed by Macduff Ship Design has been delivered to owner and boat captain George Hepburn of Peterhead in the north-east of Scotland.

Celestial Dawn replaces Hepburn’s earlier similarly named vessel, which was delivered in 2000. Like its predecessor, the new Celestial Dawn will be used to trawl for prawns in the North Sea. The newbuild is also the first of a planned series of three trawlers.

The design of Celestial Dawn began in 2018. Although intended to fish in a similar way to the owner’s previous vessel, the design of the new vessel was focused on both enhancing crew comfort and improving fuel efficiency.

The hull is built entirely from steel while aluminium was used for the wheelhouse and the mast. The hull features double chine construction, a transom stern, and a modern bow designed to cut cleanly through the sea with less energy, leading to a reduction in fuel consumption and emissions along with increased crew comfort. The designer said the vessel’s arrangement is conventional for a Scottish trawler of this size.

Below deck are the cabins, the engine room, the fish hold, and a large freshwater tank forward of the collision bulkhead. Above deck is the aft shelter, the galley/mess, a side passage area, a fish processing area, and the forepeak where the trawl winch is situated.

A bespoke hydraulic deck machinery package consists of a triple barrel winch featuring a Hagglunds compact CA210 motor, two split net drums complete with two Hagglunds compact CA70 motors per drum, two bagging winches complete with Hagglunds CA70 motors, two small gear handling winches, and a cod end lifting winch. Thistle Marine supplied both the MFB8 landing crane and MBK13 powerblock crane, both of which feature a slew ring base. Primary hydraulic power is provided by a single Parker hydraulic pump driven from a dedicated Mitsubishi 6D24 auxiliary engine producing 218 kW whilst secondary hydraulic power is provided by a Parker hydraulic pump driven from a power take-off fitted to the main propulsion’s gearbox.

The hydraulically powered bow thruster was supplied by Kort Propulsion. The hydraulic system is cooled via a Blokland box cooler and a Bowman heat exchanger.

The propulsion package features a 2.5-metre fixed-pitch propeller driven via a Masson Marine W7400 reversible gearbox by a Caterpillar C32 main engine that produces 492 kW at 1,600 to 1,800 rpm. The trawler also features a triple rudder system and high-lift propeller nozzle.

Cooling systems for all engines are served by box coolers supplied by Blokland Non-Ferro.

Electricity is supplied by two Mitsubishi 98kW generators, which are of sufficient size to run the vessel’s power independently providing complete redundancy.

The electrical systems were designed and fitted by R.D. Downie, which also fabricated the vessel’s switchboard and control panels for all the pumps and motor starters. In addition to this, R.D. Downie also provided the fire, bilge, and gas alarm systems along with the navigation light panel.

The fish processing deck feature a catch handling system built by the yard and Northeast Fabricators and is complemented by a resin floor system fitted by Davidsons Marine and Industrial Painters. A separate compartment is formed within the fish processing area to house both the ice plant room and the fish hold access hatch. The fish hold refrigeration system, along with the ice machine, was supplied and fitted by Airo-Tech Solutions.

The vessel was fully painted by Davidson Marine and Industrial Painters using International Paints products.

The high specification navigation package was supplied and fitted onboard by Woodsons. The electronics also include a Scanmar net monitoring package along with a JFC transducer.