CONTROLLABLE TRAWL DOORS – TYPE 42 BLUESTREAM ONBOARD F/V KRISTIN NC336
Small extract from National Fishermen article by Paul Molyneaux
Ola Hansson, skipper and part owner of the Kristin, can’t say enough good about the Type 42 Bluesteram “We own a German flagged pelagic trawler owned by Swedish fishermen who work onboard,” says Hansson. “We live outside Gothenburg on the island Donsö.
At first, Hansson used 13 square meter Thyborön type 22 Trawldoors on the 174-foot Kristin, which was built at Karstensens shipyard in Skagen Denmark 2020.
“We were looking for even more powerful doors, but do not have height enough in the gallow for higher doors,” says Hansson. “After discussion with Thyboron they offer us to test their new model Type 42 and we invested in doors, bottom parts and software for controlling the doors. We downsized to 12 square meter doors, its no problem to handle the doors due to height and now we have much more spread efficiency and can use a bigger trawl with bigger volume and cover more water and bottom volume.”
Hansson has become a big fan of the auto depth feature. “I like that we now have doors we really can steer,” he says. “When we fish shallow or the current has an impact on the gear we use the auto depth mode, and both doors really kept the chosen depth. We get good spread, and the trawl stays in good shape.”
Hansson adds that when trawling in manual mode, and not adjusting the foils very much, the batteries still had 33 percent charge after 52 hours. “In combination manual and auto depth we used 50% of the capacity in 30 hours, and it’s easy to recharge the doors when bringing in the catch.”
The only challenge Hansson reports was on the maiden voyage with the test doors. “We were fishing in shallow water, 25-30 meters, but with the support and effort from Thyborøn Trawldoors together with the crew, we tested and adjusted until we found out how to handle the doors.” Since then he has had no issues.
“Our overall experience with Thyboron type 42 doors after using them in four different fisheries, from shallow to deeper water is very positive,” says Hansson. “And the communication between vessel and doors work well even when we have doors close to surface.” Hansson is almost embarrassed to sing the praises of Thyborøn. “Maybe you think I boosting the doors and people from Thyboron a little too much, but we are very satisfied with the product they deliver and always have been.”
“We already sold a pair to a vessel in West Africa, so we are ready for a more distant market.”
