MacDuff Ship Design has spent considerable time specialising in the design of small workboats and harbour vessels over the past 10 years. This was partially driven by a wish to broaden the company’s reach following a relatively quiet period within its original core business of the UK fishing and aquaculture sector. However, recent years have 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, despite diversification, this has remained one of the core areas of business over the past 25 years. This has led to the company’s extensive knowledge in the development of UK fishing and aquaculture.
The resurgence of both the UK and international fishing sector 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. This business has come from owners and shipyards both locally in the UK and further afield in countries such as Ireland, Norway, Australia, Canada and South Africa. 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 3m x 19m Vivier Crab vessels, which have been ordered for delivery later this year from Ship Building Asia (SBA) 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 2m x 15m vivier crab vessels for Irish owners, which are 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 vessel projects this year.
Aquaculture sector
Over the same period of time as the development of multiple new fishing vessels, we have been working closely with a number of clients within the aquaculture sector. MacDuff Ship Design has been involved in the development of a wide range of vessel for the local Scottish Salmon Farming industry over recent years, and with new regulation and expansion of this sector, there is a keen demand for MacDuff’s expertise in the development of new vessels.
Following a long and fruitful relationship, we are pleased to be working again with Inverlussa Marine Services in the development of two new workboats for the aquaculture sector. These are a 21m landing craft style workboat for general duties and a 26.25m LOA workboat coded vessel for salmon treatment work. They will be built at Ferguson Marine in Scotland.
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 6m3 x 50m3 RSW tanks for fish harvest and transport. This vessel has been ordered through SBA in Vietnam.
We have also 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 starting 2019 with such an exciting and diverse order book and look forward to working with the owners and shipyards involved in these projects.