Asterias
This vessel is an adaptation of the company’s successful landing craft designs and was constructed exclusively for mussel harvesting within the confines of Poole Harbour on the South Coast of England. The company won the building contract on the strength of their expertise and track record in the construction of fish-farm workboats for Scotland and Ireland.
In conjunction with the new owner, Oakford Oysters, an innovative system for harvesting the mussels was designed and incorporated into the hull of the vessel allowing the entire operation to be controlled from the wheelhouse. Operational trials were held in Loch Linnhe, Scotland, prior to the vessel’s departure and delivery to the South Coast.
Seed mussels, up to 20 tonnes at a time, are loaded directly from the quayside onto the deck, contained within the full height bulwarks and portable pound boards. Mussel seedlings are hosed off the deck through the scuppers which are fitted with closure plates, and a 3” engine driven pump provides up to one tonne/minute of water on deck for this purpose.
Mature mussels are harvested by means of dredge towed from a gantry above the transom. An hydraulic winch on the gantry hauls the dredge up to a guide rail system prior to automatically tipping the dredge into the hopper, then re-deploying the dredge to the sea bed. Hydraulic grading machines fed from the hopper separate the marketable mussels from the riddlings, which are transferred into a four tonne internal hopper tank by way of a deep deck channel running forward to the tank.
This vessel demonstrates Corpach Boatbuilding Company’s ability to provide the customer with a vessel designed to match his needs exactly, whilst being competitively priced and quality second to none. The increasing use of state of the art computer machinery and software ensures the company’s position at the forefront of Scottish boatbuilding whilst maintaining a tradition which has existed on the west coast for generations.