Vard and Rolls-Royce win trawler order

The contract is valued at NOK350 million (US$42.4 million) by Vard and £6 million (US$9.18 million) by Rolls-Royce. The hull will be built at Braila in Romania, and delivery is scheduled from Vard’s Aukra in December 2016.

Built to Rolls-Royce’s NVC 374 design, the 79m-long vessel will feature an ICE 1A* ice class hull. It will be equipped with Rolls-Royce equipment including a B33:45 main engine, Promas propulsion, and a power electric system with hybrid shaft generator. The equipment package also includes a tunnel thruster, automation, and winches.

Fishing winches will be driven by permanent magnet (PM) engines, marking the commercial debut for the technology developed by Rolls-Royce. “The PM winch engine is particularly suited to applications that operate in harsh conditions and combine a need for sensitive control and rapid changes in pull and speed,” Rolls-Royce said.

The vessel’s main engine, the medium-speed Bergen B33:45, has been selected to power five fishing vessels since it was launched by Rolls-Royce last year. The IMO Tier II and III compliant engine offers a 20% increase in power per cylinder compared to existing engines in the range, with a low specific fuel consumption of 177g/kWh at full load. The B33:45 is designed for a major maintenance interval of 25,000 hours when operating at average loads.

The hybrid shaft generator allows shaft speed to be reduced whilst maintaining a constant frequency for electrical supply. This allows more flexible use of engine and propeller speed variations to maximise efficiencies, with benefits to fuel efficiency, emissions reduction and operating costs.

The vessel houses a factory for the production of a variety of shrimps. Specialised decks for palletized cargo offer a storage capacity of 2,100m3, with two further packaging holds across two decks.