Sword Boat Design

[ocean_admiral]

I'm designing a sword boat (trawler type) for myself and would like some input from others that may have similar designs. She's 55'LOA, 52'LWL, 8.5' Draft, 26.5' Beam. Sleeps 4, head/shower, 500gal water tank, galley, helm, single diesel dry stack(200-300hp), 20kw northern lights genset, 12,000gals diesel, 68,000lb fish hold, ice flaker....etc. Is there anyone with ideas and can clean up my designs and what performance I can expect? I can fax the sketches to those that are interested. thank you!

[sharpii2]

Originally Posted by ocean_admiral

I'm designing a sword boat (trawler type) for myself and would like some input from others that may have similar designs. She's 55'LOA, 52'LWL, 8.5' Draft, 26.5' Beam. Sleeps 4, head/shower, 500gal water tank, galley, helm, single diesel dry stack(200-300hp), 20kw northern lights genset, 12,000gals diesel, 68,000lb fish hold, ice flaker....etc. Is there anyone with ideas and can clean up my designs and what performance I can expect? I can fax the sketches to those that are interested. thank you!

Sounds about right to me, but the amount of diesel seems a bit high. It appears that you're after about 5 1/2 weeks under full power. At that rate, it could probably cross the Atlantic in 7-8 days. Just to put things in perspective.

Bob

Far be it from me to question, anyones reasons for wanting to build a boat (who needs a reason - right?...build it and the swordfish will come!)

I thought the whole thing about the perfect storm movie - was making a commment about the overfishing of dwindling swordfish stocks requiring vessels to make longer and longer voyages further and further afield, in order to catch any of any decent size...and as a result not being able to outrun any bad weather back to safe anchorage in time.

At least - thats what I thought.

Heck - maybe there are swordfish there to be caught?

If there was - and this vessel was needing to generate it's own power to run the ice maker to fill a 68,000lb fish hold (thats a lotta ice & fish) - then presumably, you'd need a lot of fuel for "other than propulsion" purposes?

Is it actually to be used for trawling or - are you looking to design a "trawler style yacht" for cruising - which is becomming a lot more popular of late?.

Can't be - or why the 68000lb fish hold...just answered my own question!

Ohh well - surely someone here can advise..

Sorry to question the Fish stocks, I'd be interested to know - if there ARE swordfish stocks to be had off the Netherlands, never too old to learn summut new!

Cheers!

[D'ARTOIS]

Bizarre, there is not a single swordfish boat to be find in Holland registered here, although that's what I believe.
I have seen a few in Tanger, Morocco, maybe you find some at the south ports of Portugal that are close to the Atlantic.
It is a delicious fish, in taste close to veal, when I was working in Morocco, once a week we got 2 or 3 for the guests.

15 tons of fish 'n ice is a lot.....

12.000 gallons diesel equals 42.000 liters (btw which gals? IMP or US?) gives you about 1500 hrs autonomy or about 12.000 NM at a general speed of 8 knots, if we do not account the consumption (heavy of the gensets to keep the fridge cold).

To fish swordfish, I thought you need something faster. Correct me if I am wrong.

Very unusual indeed but nontheless interesting - give us more specs, particularly required speed and autonomy - that works better.

[sharpii2]

The sad thing about commercial fishing is that the more efficient everyone becomes, the harder it gets to make a living. Its like the antithesis of farming. The more efficient everyone gets at farming, the more food becomes available. Eventtually there is so much food that it exhausts the market (at least that of those who can pay). This has the perverse effect of forcing farmers to become even more efficient to put less efficient farmers out of business. That is why, here in America, we have huge farms manned by few full time workers and just about everybody is forced into the cities (which, now days, are running out of jobs too).

With fishing the the situation is even more perverse. This is because, instead of the market being exhausted, the product is. Now we have the sad spectacle of fewer and fewer numbers of more and more $ophi$ticated fishing machines chasing an ever dwindling supply of fish. I suppose, with this logic, that the very last swordfish will be caught by some billionaire off his mega yacht well after the last commercial fisherman has long since gone bankrupt.

Now I'm not saying that these fisherman are bad people. They, like me, are only guys only trying to make a living. They are merely being betrayed by seriously out dated notions of progress and outragious expections of future afluence. It's as if we all still believe that this planet is still an inexaustable cornecopea of resources. Believe it or not, that is what future economist going to some of our best schools are still being taught.

A sensable but imperfect solution to this would be to severely limit the cababilities of the boats. I would do this by limiting the mechical power of the boats. I would limit them to 50hp (roughly 37kw) per boat. This would either make the boats much smaller, or force them to return to sail as thier main propulsion system. This, I hope, would give the fish half a chance to replenish. Like a casino, the odds in a fishery need to favor the house (the fish) if the fishery, like the casino, is to stay in business.

You may call me a radical. And you may be right. But it is not because I want to be.

Bob

[woodboat]

Bob, It is very simple to manage the "crop" with fishing. Look at king crab. The season is adjusted to catch a certain percentage of the available catch. Fisherman are smarter than you give credit. You assume they will fish themselves out of a job. This is the same logic applied to tree farming where in fact they plant new trees to cut at a later date. There is no need to limit a boats capabilities as this will surely have unintended consequences.

I'm with Bob on this one!

You do however make an excellent point - that fish are a renewable resource.

History (maybe with the exception of the Alaska King Crabs?) proves that Fishermen do often fish themselves out of a job.

Cheers!

[D'ARTOIS]

I follow Bob and Trouty.....

25 years ago I used to launch my boat, an inflatable Zodiac Mk3, from the beach to fish for cod, mackerel - whatever there was.

From the village they shrimpers came with there towing gear for making short trek's and brought their catch home where the family started peeling, afterwards selling the lot.

That now, is over and out. Terminated. The sea on our front porch is empty.

from time to time the large shrimpers from IJmuiden make a trek, emptying the whole coastline.

That's how it is today.

[woodboat]

What if you limit the capabilities of the boat and as a direct result human lives are lost? I think it is better to manage the resources.

[D'ARTOIS]

First of all, I must say that Ocean_Admiral's requirements are quite modest and not to compare with the large vessels, that use 5000-6000 hp engines.

I have some experience with fishingvessels as I was involved to conduct a procurement program for a canning factory and als had to advise where to find/buy Tunahunters c.q. purse seiners. Such boats have a normal autonomy of say 160-170 hours;
1500 hours however, looks like a bit overgenerous, not to say overkill. Only if you want to go to Europ or extreme lng periods at sea.

What I know is that Tunahunters are quite fast and a swordfish is also a fast fish. It is a particular kind of fishing of which I do not know much, that what I now is that tose boats should be pretty fast, in any case over 20 knots.

[D'ARTOIS]

I have digged up some particulars about the Swordfish, I think a week's autonomy might be too short and - after all - you require a bit more time to get your hold full.

[chandler]

D'ARTOIS
I believe the sword fishing in question is long lining, where you put out miles and miles of baited hooks and troll at relatively low speeds. The other metod being more of a sport in which you chase individual fish and harpoon them, or as in tuna when you have a spotter plane and race to a location to catch them with rod and reel.

[D'ARTOIS]

I have never fished in the big game scene, hunting yes, not fishing.
Would like to do it once, to get something of the thrill - Hemingway did already some preparation by describing this kind of fishing, which is so different from catching a leopard.

Wynand knows that.....

Maybe I'll ever have the chance......

[chandler]

D"ARTOIS,
I hope you really are catching leopards and not shooting them for the sake of shooting them.

[D'ARTOIS]

For heaven's sake, hunting I did but long time ago, no, I never shot a leopard, no need to. Catching yes, they were a nuisance in that part where I lived, on the Longatchimo river close to the Angolan border. I only shot once a Hippo that threatened our divers.

BTW I had a tame python as a pet: 90 kgs and 7.50 mtr long: "Lolita" - she used to sleeb on the end of my campbed, throwing me out.