The new build fishing vessel ‘Fruitful Vine BF 240’ has been delivered to her new owners, replacing their previous fishing vessel of the same name, built by the same shipyard in 2010. 

Fruitful Vine

‘Fruitful Vine’ - remodeled following tank tests during the design phase, her modern bow uses less energy to cut cleanly through the sea, leading to a reduction in fuel consumption and emissions.

The new vessel, built by Macduff Shipyard and designed by Macduff Ship Design, will fish around the coast of Scotland, occasionally pair trawling alongside Nicol Fishing Ltd’s other fishing vessel, the ‘Steadfast Hope BF 240’.

‘Fruitful Vine’ is a sister ship to the ‘Orion’, completed last year. At an early stage in the design phase, a decision was taken to remodel these vessels bows based on the preliminary results from a tank testing program which Macduff Ship Design Macduff Shipyard were running. Further detailed analysis on the design was conducted by the Wolfson Unit in Southampton using CFD technology to compare the proposed new bow against previous models with the results showing a net decrease in hull resistance at steaming speeds. Following this, the hull form was faired and finalised by Macduff Ship Design who then produced a full set of steel construction plans along with conducting the incline experiment and producing the vessels stability booklet. The fabrication of the hull was carried out in Macduff with the construction reviewed and verified by SFIA and the MCA.

The hull of ‘Fruitful Vine’ is built completely from steel, with an aluminium wheelhouse and masts, and features a double chine hull form, transom stern and modern bow designed to use less energy to cut cleanly through the sea, leading to a reduction in fuel consumption and emissions along with increased crew comfort.

Below deck features the cabins, engine room, fish hold and a large freshwater tank forward of the collision bulkhead. Above deck houses the aft shelter, galley/mess and side passage area, fish processing area and then forepeak where the trawl winch is situated.

A bespoke hydraulic deck machinery package was fabricated by the yard comprising of a triple barrel winch with increased drum size to accommodate pair fishing gear, two split net drums, two bagging winches, two small gear handling winches, cod-end lifting winch and a dedicated anchor windlass.