Another Catch For Wärtsilä

Wärtsilä announced it has been awarded a contract to provide the propulsion machinery for a new purse seine fishing trawler ordered by Strand Senior AS, a subsidiary of Strand Havfiske AS based in Norway. The vessel will be built at the Karstensen Skibsvaerft shipyard in Denmark.

“We wanted to build a new vessel that represents the future,” said Janne-Grethe Strand Aasnæs, managing director, Strand Havfiske AS. “For this reason we have emphasized high efficiency and environmental sustainability and Wärtsilä was the obvious choice to meet these aims.”

When delivered in early 2019, the 75 m long trawler will carry out commercial fishing operations, combining trawling and purse seining. The trawl fishing will be carried out mostly along the west coast of Ireland. Wärtsilä has earlier supplied propulsion solutions for other vessels in the Strand Senior fleet.

In specifying that an innovative and highly efficient vessel was required, Strand Havfiske specifically emphasized that the propulsion system should be centered on the Wärtsilä 31 engine. Available in 8 to 16 cylinder configurations with outputs from 4.2 to 9.8 MW at 720 and 750 rpm, the Wärtsilä 31 engine has bore and stroke dimensions of 310 x 430 mm and a cylinder output of 610 kW/cyl. Along with the high output, the Wärtsilä 31 has also been cited as one of the world’s most efficient four-stroke diesel engines, which also leads to minimized exhaust emissions, the company said.

As part of the contract, Wärtsilä will also supply a two-speed gearbox, controllable pitch propellers, an HP-Nozzle, shaft generator and the Wärtsilä ProTouch control system.  Wärtsilä said the two-speed gearbox provides additional fuel savings by enabling the propeller to be operated at low speed when maximum vessel speed or thrust is not required. It also results in reduced noise levels, which is important both for crew comfort and because the level of underwater radiated noise affects the efficiency of the fishing activities.

“The Wärtsilä 31 engine is becoming a popular choice for vessels where operational efficiency is a key requirement,” said Stefan Wiik, vice president, Engines, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions. “Already a number of new fishing vessels have specified the Wärtsilä 31 and we expect this trend to be increasingly emphasized over the coming years.”

www.wartsila.com