Winches for a new fishing vessel Karearea

When Whangarei company Penwarden Holdings was looking to build a modern trawler to fish for scampi, they went to Oceantech, a ship designer with bases in Australia and New Zealand.

The result is the Whangarei-registered Karearea, the latest Oceantech fishing vessel design and the only purpose-designed scampi trawler fishing in New Zealand waters. Our engineers took many of the design cues from Penwarden’s existing vessel Bilyara which has served the company well, keeping the overall arrangement, but with a need to incorporate modern features and greater capacity.

Our experienced team paid particular attention to optimising fuel capacity, at 110,140 litres, to provide greater endurance, giving Karearea a full hull. In addition, while the majority of Oceantech’s recent fishing vessel designs have featured a plumb bow, this time, we took the option to go instead for a bulbous bow hull form.

A further feature is that Karearea has articulated stabilisers to aid seakeeping, and these are becoming a common feature in Oceantech’s trawler designs.

Karearea was built in Australia, where after a gap of a decade in building fishing vessels, MG Engineering in Adelaide took on the construction of the steel-hulled trawler, which has an overall length of 25 metres with an 8-metre beam and a 3.50-metre draught.

The aft engine room is home to a set of Caterpillars, with a C7.1 gensets and a 1000hp C32 main engine driving a VP10 propeller via a CPGD50 reduction gearbox, both of which are from Hundested, providing a top speed on trials of 10.50 knots, a respectable cruising speed of 9.50 knots and a 16-tonne bollard pull. The 55 cubic metres refrigerated fish room is located forward of the engine space.