Business may be warming up for the freezer trawler Supreme II (DA38) based on the east coast port of Clogherhead. Owner Jim Connolly has recently installed a freezing system aboard and is now focusing on the niche market of supplying quality, frozen-at-sea nephrops to Europe.
The Supreme II is a modern, prawn twin rig trawler measuring 24.7m in overall length, with a beam of 7.4m and a depth of 3.9m, the vessel was built in Boulogne in France five years ago. She is driven by a 565hp ABC DX engine at 750rpm and has a Cummings auxiliary engine at 5.9 litres.
The 40-fathom nets made by Pepe Trawls of Howth are stored on the RAPP net drums which can accommodate six nets on drums of which two are split.
The eight of a crew fish usually two trips on and one off, thus maximising the crew rest periods. To date three of the crew are trained in HACCP food handling procedures and more will be trained in the future. Most of the time the vessel fishes the Smalls and the Labidie Bank, but fishes the Porcupine for two months in the summer.
The catch is retrieved over the transom stern and is dropped into a pound where it is washed, and any fish are separated at a processing table as the prawns are washed in a powerful first stage washer before going onto a conveyor belt, then to a prawn sorting table. The prawns are selected according to size, 15-30 per kilo being the target size for the market.
Once the prawns are dipped they are moved to a stainless steel packing table and fitted in rows in three kilo boxes ready for the blast freezer.
The boxed prawns are frozen initially at a core temperature of -25 degrees centigrade for six hours at a maximum of 500kgs at a time. Then they are stored in the eight tonne holding cold store for off-loading at port. At this stage if maintained at -18 degrees centigrade, the product will have a shelf life of two years.
The freezer system was installed by GEA Grenco Ireland Ltd and uses a direct expansion refrigeration system. Supreme II relief skipper Terry Powers has already completed a refrigerant safe handling course which maximises operating safety onboard the vessel.
Jim Connolly explained there wer a number of benefits in using this freezing system. The vessel fishes more productively; can maximise its monthly quote; better quality prawns are targetted; a higher price is generated; and the crew are rotated regularly. Also the Supreme II wastes less fuel steaming back to port and spends more time fishing on the grounds.
Landing to the Clogherhead Coop along with several other freezer trawlers, a vital niche in the market has been identified and exploited by selling to Spain and sometimes Italy and other EU countries.
GEA Grenco Ireland Ltd (Marine) designed, supplied, installed and commissioned a purpose-built freezing system to meet the requirements of the Supreme II.
The freezer and coldstore areas were built and insulated using a specialised pumped insulation method. The refrigeration system uses specially designed marine evaporators built in the GEA factory in Holland, which during recent sea trials as part of Grenco's standard commissioning process, has proved very successful for the prawn freezing application.
GEA Grenco also wishes to thank their marine engineering partners MMG Welding Ltd Killybegs, Martin McGuinness and his team, for their excellent workmanship and successfully meeting the tight time schedule for project completion.