VESSEL REVIEW | Tuugaalik – Royal Greenland welcomes 82-metre trawler to fleet

Fishing company Royal Greenland has expanded its fleet of trawlers with the recent acquisition of a newbuild fishing vessel from Spanish shipyard Astilleros de Murueta.

The DNV-classed, Skipsteknisk-designed Tuugaalik will be operated by Royal Greenland partner company Qaleralik. As with earlier sister Nataarnaq, the vessel has an LOA of 82.3 metres, a moulded beam of 18 metres, a draught of 8.7 metres, a depth of 7.95 metres, and upper and lower refrigerated holds with a total capacity of 2,950 cubic metres and a rated freezing capacity of 120 tonnes per day. The large hold capacity will allow for longer trips with full focus on fishing, and port calls with unloading will be possible in less than 24 hours.

The factory equipment from Carsoe includes a complete processing plant installed with an automatic separation of by-catch, grading of the shrimps by size, and a continuous cooking line. The shrimp are frozen either in IQF tunnels or in automatically loaded and unloaded horizontal freezers. The frozen and packed shrimp are then set aside in a freezer hotel for later onboard palletising and easier subsequent offloading in port. Palletising and transportation of the catch to the cargo hold is done in a continuous flow and using only minimal floor space with a cargo lift serving as an integrated part of the palletising system.

The factory facilities may also be used for halibut and cod and there are even sorting and processing equipment optimised for use with these fish species. For fishing, the vessel relies on Seaonics winches and Vonin trawls and trawl doors.

The propulsion system consists of one MAN 12V32/44CR 7,200kW engine driving a 4,500mm MAN propeller, one MAN 3,200ekW PTO shaft generator, two Caterpillar C32 940ekW auxiliary generators, and a Caterpillar C7.1 163ekW harbour generator. A 750kW bow thruster and a 500kW stern thruster from Brunvoll provide additional lateral manoeuvrability for positioning at sea, navigating in close quarters, and berthing/unberthing. The main engine delivers a speed of approximately 15 knots in ballast conditions.

Crew accommodations include an exercise room, a medical bay, and 30 single cabins. Design work on the interior accommodation spaces was provided by Maritime Montering, which had also carried out similar works on two other vessels in the Royal Greenland fleet.

Tuugaalik was built with heavy ice-class and is outfitted for operation in Arctic waters.

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