“

The Marsali is a very complex vessel and it took a lot of work with Cooke and right” the manufacturer to get this

maintain a strong connection with Lochinver, and to keep the Marsali name alive.”

However, Marsali will mainly spend her time in Orkney and Shetland supporting Cooke’s seawater operations and will call into Lochinver on her way south or north when travelling with smolts.

Hugh Murray continued: “There is usually very little downtime. Our boats are only tied up between jobs, or when we need to bunker fuel, freshwater and food. When she’s not on station at a farm she’ll mostly be in harbours in Lerwick, Scalloway, Kirkwall and Stromness. She’ll sail south to pick up smolts from Cooke’s freshwater operations in Argyll and Cumbria, probably visiting harbour in Oban, Campbeltown, Workington and Hartlepool.”

Signalling their confidence in the Scottish aquaculture sector, Migdale is due to go into refit later this year, again in Norway, where it will be upgraded to provide better support to Scotland’s salmon farming sector.

Hugh Murray added: “The aquaculture sector has been making huge investment in wellboats and wellboat technology over the last decade, and the industry is world leaders in this sphere.

“The Marsali is a very complex vessel and it took a lot of work with Cooke and the manufacturer to get this right. This is a significant investment for us, and sets the benchmark for many years to come.”

Luxury at sea