Tuco to deliver boats for Norwegian fish farming
Two adapted ProZero 15m composite workboats from Danish boatbuilder Tuco have been sold as high pressure net cleaning boats to Norwegian AKVA Group demonstrating the wide potential of this adaptable design.
Designed by collaboration between Tuco’s engineers and multiple world leading aqua cultural experts, the boats’ development has been driven by the many requests Tuco has had for specialized aqua cultural workboats adapted from the Tuco Marine ProZero series of Daughter Crafts, Workboats and FRCs.
The boats are both going to be built of carbon fibre composites to reduce the structural weights of the vessels. Tuco claims that the vessels will be capable of cruising at more than 30 knots and are powered by a pair of inboard diesel engines on forward facing propellers in Volvo Pentas IPS system; securing a superior control and world-class hull efficiency to keep fuel consumption at a minimum. Resulting in the lowest possible environmental impact from the boats’ operations.
“Fisheries and aquaculture remain important sources of food, nutrition, income and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people around the world. And World per capita fish supply, has reached a new record high, thanks to vigorous growth in aquaculture, which now provides half of all fish for human consumption. Therefore, it has been logical for us to target the sector with our fast and highly specialized boats”, said Jonas Pedersen, CEO at Tuco Marine.
The boats have been sold to AKVA Group in collaboration with Tuco Marine’s local partner on the fish farming market, Arild Friestad from Boat and Barge AS, who has been a recognized supplier for the industry through decades.
The ProZero´s hull, in the fish farming edition, features special hull appendages and reinforcements, to optimize for fish farm operations, and the ProZero hull secures the boats’ capabilities of supplying a stable ride in rough seas. Fast and smooth operations in rough seas are mainly limited by the human factor of shock mitigation and climate impacts. The ProZero workboats have been developed around the ProZero design team’s shock mitigation strategy, with a high level of attention being payed to minimizing effects of shocks to the human body and the boat during all parts of operations.
ProZero boats are available in multiple configurations, which are carefully tuned to suit each individual user’s particular requirements. Cockpit layouts in the workboats are arranged to maximize the use of modern electronic aids.
By Jake Frith
