Macduff Ship Design have over the past 10 years spent considerable time specialising in the design of small workboats and harbour vessels.  This was partially driven by a wish to broaden the companies reach and a relatively quiet period within its original core business of the UK fishing and aquaculture sector.  However recent years has seen a resurgence in the interest in new build within these sectors. Fishing sector Macduff Ship Design was originally conceived to work with the local UK fishing fleet and over the past 25 years despite diversification this has remained one of the core areas of business.  This has led to the company’s extensive knowledge in the development of UK fishing and aquaculture sectors. The resurgence in the fishing sector both in the UK and worldwide has led to significant new build interest.  More recently Macduff Ship Design has been contracted for a number of new and concept designs in both the fishing and aquaculture sectors, from owners and shipyards both locally in the UK and further afield in Ireland, France, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa as well as several Mediterranean countries.  This increased interest has culminated in a wave of new build orders being placed in recent months. We are pleased to announce that we are working closely with two UK owners on the design of a series of 3 x 19m Vivier Crab vessels which have been ordered for delivery later this year from Ship Building Asia (SBA) – building in Vietnam.  These projects follow on from the successful build of a new multi role fishing vessel currently being completed for Canadian owners by the same shipyard. At the same time as this contract being finalised Macduff has also been awarded the design for a further 2 x 15m Vivier Crab vessels for Irish owners, again being built with SBA. Macduff Ship Design has also been working closely with Macduff Shipyards on the development of several new design projects.  The past year has seen the deliveries of a number of new fishing vessels from 15m to 26.5m, and current production sees new building continue for a 19m Scallop Trawler, 26.5m Trawler, 15m Vivier Crabber, 24.5m Trawler and 34.0m Stern Trawler. Alongside this new design work we are actively in discussion with a number of other yards and owners and hope that this will lead to further new build vessels starting later this year. Aquaculture sector Over this same period of time as this development of multiple new fishing vessels we have been working closely with a number of clients within the aquaculture sector on new projects.  Macduff Ship Design has been involved in the development of a wide range of vessels in this sector over recent years for the local Scottish Salmon Farming industry, and with new regulation and expansion of this sector there is a keen demand for Macduff’s expertise in the development of new vessels to meet this demand. Following a long and fruitful relationship we are pleased to be working again with Inverlussa Marine Services in the development of 2 new workboats for the aquaculture sector.  The vessels, a 21m landing craft style workboat for general duties and a 26.25m LOA, under 24m registered, workboat coded vessel for Salmon treatment work are to be built in Scotland at Ferguson Marine. Alongside the development of these vessels we have been working with Ship Building Asia and Canadian owners in the development of an under 500 GT, 37m Harvest vessel with capacity for 6 x 50 cubic metre RSW tanks for fish harvest and transport.  This vessel has been ordered through SBA, building in Vietnam. As well as these vessels we have recently been awarded the supply of steel cutting data for a repeat build 14m catamaran workboat to be built by Macduff Shipyards. We are delighted to be heading into 2019 with such an exciting and diverse order book and look forward to working with the owners and shipyards involved in these projects and completing many more projects in the coming years.

Macduff Ship Design is pleased to announce that the 16m Harbour Tug, ‘Acamar’, which was designed for Shoreham Port Authority for operation in their busy harbour, has successfully completed the delivery voyage from Macduff to Shoreham on the south coast of England.

The build process started in August 2017 with the first steel being cut for the vessel.  The entire construction and outfitting of the vessel was supervised by Macduff Ship Design with the owners being kept updated regularly as to the vessel’s progress.  ‘Acamar’ is constructed entirely from steel to a hard-chine hullform with a box skeg and Kort propulsion supply KT30 bow thruster.  The final touches were completed on the vessel in July 2018 with delivery being achieved in early September.  The design, inspired by the popular ‘Eileen Mcloughlin’ hull, was customised to suit Shoreham Port’s busy operations schedule and narrowed in order to fit through lock gates.  The unusual but aptly named ‘Acamar’, which derives from an Arabic phrase meaning ‘end of the river’, complements Shoreham’s existing vessel ‘Adurni’ by adding extra capability to the Shoreham fleet.

The tug is equipped with everything that a busy commercial port requires.  A Mampaey tow hook provides 150kN of capacity whilst the vessel achieved a bollard pull is 10 tonnes and free running speed of 10 knots on trials.  An aft lifting gantry and 7 tonne winch provides plough-dredging capability.  As well as dredging, the vessel’s other duties will include towing, pushing, surveying and lifting which is carried out with A Cormach 8700 E4 Marine Deck crane.

Below deck, Doosan V158 engines providing 480HP at 1800rpm are flexibly coupled to Twin Disc gearboxes with a reduction ratio of 6.10:1.  The 1.7m twin propellers are driven through Kort nozzles.  Above deck the vessel is fitted with an external fi-fi-monitor and pump, and the wheelhouse is fitted with the latest equipment such as Furuno electronics as well as a high precision GPS for carrying out survey work.

Macduff Ship Design is pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Shoreham Port on this project and at present is being kept busy with a full order book of new and repeat designs for owners both in the UK and abroad.