Big welcome for Sealord’s new $70m hi-tech trawler
After three years of planning and a six-week delivery voyage across the globe, Sealord’s $70 million factory trawler Tokatu has arrived home.
Hundreds gathered along Nelson’s Wakefield Quay as the muchanticipated ship, skippered by Stephan Fridell and carrying a 20-strong delivery crew, entered The Cut yesterday morning, guided by a mini-flotilla of tugs, coastguard vessels and waka ama.
Once berthed at Sealord’s Port Nelson base just after 10am, Sealord staff and family of the 50-strong crew were allowed an opportunity to tour the vessel, before a blessing from local iwi.
Named Tokatu, from the Ma¯ori proverb ‘‘Te toka tu moana’’, the rock that stands in the oceans, the vessel is designed to fish for all species and will produce base products at sea. It will have the capacity to handle 20,000 tonnes of raw material annually, including barracuda, squid and jack mackerel.
Tokatu has a 2500-cubic metre fish room capacity and can process up to 150 tonnes daily. At 81.75m long and 4706 gross tonnage, it is the country’s largest New Zealandowned fishing vessel.
For project manager Dorje Strange, Tokatu’s arrival brings to an end more than three years of late-night conferences, meetings and numerous trips to the Simek boatyard in Flekkefjord, Norway.
The addition of Tokatu to Sealord’s fleet was a sound investment in fishing as well as tech- nology, he said.
‘‘We were starting to get an ageing fleet, like everyone else in Nelson – but we didn’t think the answer was a Russian model or secondhand boat, which would only give us 20 years of service.
‘‘You need to bring your laptop as well as a spanner to work on this.’’
Tokatu will complete final testing in Nelson before being put to work on a four-week fishing trip off the West Coast.
Rex Chapman co-skippered the Atlantic leg of the voyage from Norway to Nelson, by way of the Panama Canal, and will be taking the ship out next week for its first fishing trip.
He said the new vessel had more than met expectations in terms of aesthetics and, more importantly, handling the big seas, with only a minor repair to navigational equipment required.
‘‘The baby is born, now we just need to feed it – there’s something new for everyone on board to learn with the complexity of the factory and the electronics packages.’’
Tokatu was designed by Norwegian naval architects Skipstensik, who had previously blueprinted a number of Sealord vessels, includingA¯ the Aukaha and Paerangi.
The company’s design manager, Inge Straume, said it was satisfying to see the next link in the partnership come to fruition.
Straume said Skipstensik had created a number of similarlydesigned vessels around the world, with another 20 on the cards. But Tokatu had special features for the sustainability and specific fishery demands of New Zealand.