Part of Urk Fishermen’s Co-operative VCU, technical division TCD continues to expand, both in terms its technical capabilities and in the work it takes on. Now it has delivered its first complete fishing vessel and managing director Lourens de Boer is understandably proud of what his team has achieved. 

Shrimp trawler Bona Fide TX-65 has been built for family-owned Texel company Texelse Garnaal, which runs its own shop and specialises in delivering fresh shrimps direct to supermarkets. 

Although the new trawler’s performance and looks have been outstanding, this has been a far from happy time for owner Erik Kalf. He had previously explored the possibility of building his new shrimper at TCD, but plans changed as his wife Anita was diagnosed with cancer. As she made a recovery, the plans were resurrected and the order was placed for the new vessel – only for her to suffer a relapse and she passed away only days before Bona Fide’s delivery this summer.

Texelse Garnaal had already been a TCD customer, having been supplied with slurry ice machines and other equipment over the years, so building the new trawler entirely in Urk was not an unlikely step, not least as TCD had already built a steel hull for a leisure boat project for Urk shipbuilder Albert Hartman whose business is mainly in completing cargo vessels using hulls constructed in Poland.

‘He came to us some time ago and asked us to build the hull for a Livingstone 24,’ Lourens de Boer said.

‘We hadn’t built anything like this before, so we couldn’t give him a price as we didn’t know how much steel would be needed or how many working hours would go into it. But he was confident of what we could do, and trusted us to build this hull.’

This experience provides a basis to work out a price for Bona Fide, built to a Herman Jansen design and with TCD as the main contractor, using sub-contractors The Flux for the woodwork, plumbing and aircon, Piet Brouwer for the electrics and Luyt in Den Oever to deliver the winch and the Caterpillar main engine 

This makes Bona Fide the first fishing vessel to be built entirely in Urk since Josephina Maria UK-184 was delivered by the Metz and Hoekman shipyards in 1999.

‘This really is a quality build,’ Lourens de Boer said. ‘There’s a lot of stainless steel in this trawler and it’s a real Rolls-Royce among shrimp trawlers. It’s also very sad, as this should have been a time of celebration.’

Designed by Hernand Jansen, Bona Fide has a 23.95 metre overall length and a beam of 6.20 metres, and it replaces an older trawler that was sold to Tjeerd Visser and is now Monte Senior WL-39.

The contract for the new Bona Fide was signed in August 2017 and the keel was formally laid by Erik and Anita Kalf at the TCD workshops in Urk on the 2nd of December, and as the construction made rapid progress, the hull was launched on 30th May 2018 for the later stages of fitting out.

Bona Fide docked for the first time in its home port of Oudeschild on the island of Texel on the 27th of July, the day after Anita Kalf’s passing.

Bona Fide has a Caterpillar C12 main engine driving a five-bladed, 1500mm diameter Promarin propeller inside an FS-40 nozzle, via a Twin Disc MGX-5170-DC gearbox which has a switchable PTO for the hydraulic pump. Couperus Hydraulics fitted the hydraulic and steering systems.

The main engine and the Caterpillar C4.4 and C2.2 generators sets were supplied by Luyt, which also supplied the six-drum fishing winch.

The bow thruster is a Sidepower SH550 unit. The wheelhouse electronics are from De Boer Marine in Urk.

Bona Fide’s catch handling installation on the main deck is from De Boer RVS and this delivers cooked and sorted shrimps to the fishroom, and catches are landed several times during each week-long trip in the Wadden Zee or North Sea. Polar supplied the fishroom chiller system and ice machine.

As well as being the builder and main contractor, VCU also delivered Bona Fide’s rigging, anchors, safety equipment and the galley equipment on board.

Source: Hook & Net