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Into the deep
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In more ways than one; Ivan Russell counting on quality as well
as quantity to keep afloat.
In April, 1991 Fisheries news
reported on a new type of 65 foot fishing vessel being built for
Bonavista fisherman Ivan Russell.
Nearly four years of planning,
designing and construction came to a rapid climax on Saturday, May 9,
when Russell’s seven year old daughter Leah christened his brand new
boat, a front end loader nudged the cradle beneath the dark blue hull,
and seconds later the Covenant II hit the water.
The 65 foot $1.25 million vessel
was designed by Poseidon marine of St. John’s and built at Wilson
Vokey’s Trinity Shipbuilders yard. She is a sharp departure from the
usual design for vessels of this size.
The engine is aft, and the hold and
fully enclosed work deck are forward of the wheelhouse and crew
quarters. This creates a very different pattern of weight distribution,
which required a distinctly new hull design, says Poseidon Marine head
Bill Maybee.
Having created an entirely new
vessel design, Maybee gave it a specific class designation- the
Innovator class. The Covenant II is the first of her class.
The vessel is designed and
outfitted for fixed gear fishing only. “Ivan’s plan was always to
prosecute fixed gear fisheries, and this design does that with more
versatility than a mobile gear vessel can,” Maybee points out.
“The efficiency items on the boat –
the controllable pitch propeller, the bow thrusters, a hydraulically
driven generator, and comfortable accommodations- should all help to
make the vessel economic to fish. Together with Contrawl’s containerized
fish handling system, should let Ivan do more with setting catches.
The fish handling system is as uni-……
…and rapid icing, the specially
designed boxes take up less room than the standard gray insulated
containers and can store about 20 per cent more fish in a given amount
of space. This lets Russell make the best possible use of his hold.
Construction of the Covenant II
went smoothly. The steel hull was fabricated in three sections, which
were then set up on the keel and joined to it and to each other in
October, 1991. The aluminum topsides were also built in sections, then
lifted in to place atop the hull. Electrical and plumbing systems were
installed as other work progressed. By January the major mechanical
units, the engine, generators, and propulsion system, were aboard.
Poseidon’s computer drafting system
produced the full size templates for the yard to use in cutting vessel
components, eliminating the need to loft each vessel component from
scale plans and greatly reducing fitting problems.
Russell now has about a month of
fitting out and testing to do before he can head for the fishing
grounds.
“We’ll be finishing the work on the
container system, and doing wharf, sea, and fishing trails over the next
few weeks to make sure everything is working properly,” he told
Fisheries News. “I’m hoping to have it crab fishing by the first or
second week in June. The season opens next week, so I’ve leased a boat,
but there should be some of the quota left when the Covenant II is ready
to go.”
He had intended to fish cod under
the inshore allowance after the crab is over, but now he thinks
deepwater turbot in 2J3KL may be the best bet for his first ground fish
season with the new boat.
“It’s not the cutbacks in cod
quotas, but the scarcity of fish, that’s the problem”, he says. “In
light of the resource situation, I plan to redirect for the turbot
fishery from the Hamilton Banks south to St. John’s, in 400 to 500
fathoms of water.”
The boat can be rigged for long
liners or gillnetting. The longline setup would use snap-on hooks on
snoods that are clipped to the longline as it goes over the side. When
hauling, a crewman unclips the snood, unhooks the fish, and rebaits.
Russell thinks it is an improvement over a random baiter system, which
can “…go through a lot of bait.”
At first, however, the Covenant II
will likely be gillnetting. Russell feels that by varying the mesh size
in gillnets he will be able to select the size of fish taken and thus
reduce catches of immature, undersized fish. He is confident that with
short soak times and quality-oriented handling and storage, he can
consistently land top quality large fish.
The Canada/Newfoundland Inshore
Fisheries Development Agreement has invested about $150,000 in
developing this new type of vessel. About $50,000 was used to do
extensive model testing of the hull for stability and sea keeping
ability before construction started. The balance of NIFDA funding went
into the fitting of bow thrusters, the variable pitch propeller, and
on-deck processing equipment.
ACOA, the Canadian Centre for
Fisheries Innovation, and the Marine Institute provided about $185,000
to help Contrawl design and construct the fish handling system. Doug
Newbury says the $300,000 price tag of the first unit reflects the high
cost of developing a new onboard handling system. He says the next
installation should cost under $100,000, with two thirds of that being
the cost of the containers.
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