Hybrid power

Volvo Penta Aquamatic Sterndrive D4-DPI is a totally integrated package, powered by the in-line 4-cylinder, 3.7-liter, common-rail diesel engine with double overhead camshafts and turbo.

Do hybrid engines have a future in U.S.

The short answer is “yes.” The long answer needs to consider details related to where, when, how and why.

By Jeremiah Karpowicz

B

eing out in the middle of nowhere is a familiar feeling to anyone that shes for a living. The sound of the open water can be as alluring as it is calming, enabling you to transport yourself into a totally di erent world. It’s a world that exposes you to the wonders of nature that surround you, allowing you to interact with the setting in a way few others will ever be able to experience.

That same experience is what the Hurtigruten Svalbard team is after, although their purpose and placement with doing so is very di erent. Seeking to provide visitors to the Svalbard Archipelago that is only about 800 miles from the North Pole with one-of-a-kind adventures, the organization is Svalbard’s most experienced tour operator and booking agency with a history that stretches back to 1896. Based in Longyearbyen, the administrative center of Svalbard, the organization is dedicated to the concept of sustainable tourism to ensure this Arctic paradise is both preserved and protected.

That commitment to sustainability compelled the Hurtigruten to partner with Volvo Penta and Marell Boats to create the Kvitbjørn (’Polar Bear’ in English), a near-silent vessel has the potential to transform the experiences they can provide to their guests. Members of the media were invited by the Volvo Penta team to experience for themselves the literal power of this hybrid solution as well as understand why Hurtigruten views their commitment to sustainability as something that’s good for business.

Seeing as how the boat is an enabler for operations that have short, dedicated journeys, the potential application for commercial shing vessel seems limited but Volvo Penta believes hybrid engines have a future in U.S. shing markets. It’s a prediction their team is making based on changes to the technology but also on account of how these solutions can directly support the core business values of an organization. Those values are re ected on

The Kvitbjørn sits in Longyearbyen Harbor, awaiting the special launch ceremony. the bottom line in the present while also considering necessary transformations for the future.

The market for hybrid propulsion systems

Experts have told us that fishermen are content to let other industries do the R&D to define hybrid use cases, although a baseline around where and how the technology can make sense had already been established. Hybrid technology simply does not make sense for anyone that is headed out to fish in Alaska, for example. While anyone operating a nearshore vessel should be actively exploring their hybrid power options, the price prevents many from taking a serious look at the technology. Even though fuel savings over 10 years will most often exceed the cost of going hybrid, many operators simply don’t have the time or budget to project that far out.

In an attempt to change how such costs are considered, the launch of the Kvitbjørn also served as the debut of a new business model from Volvo Penta that is based on a ‘power-by-the-hour’ payment program. This e-mobility-as-a-service’ model is still at a concept stage but could change how customers purchase and use marine e-mobility solutions. It’s a way of risk-sharing between Volvo Penta and the end-user to change how and when they might consider adopting these sorts of solutions. It’s something that make a difference to the Hurtigruten team.

“Sharing risk means that we’re in this together which is critical because this is something that has to work for us every day,” said Tore Hoem, Adventures Director at Hurtigruten Svalbard. “There are days when I’m annoyed because the technology behaves in a way that I’m not used to but that’s part of being first and using new technology. The shared risk and eventual value make it worthwhile.”

That worth is evident in the setting of Svalbard, which has drawn explorers from all over the world since the 16th century. Being part of the launch allowed us to take a close look at the technology that literally powered our journey out to sea, exposing us to the natural wonders of the surroundings and the possibilities that the technology represents to preserve, protect and better highlight these same settings. This focus on sustainability isn’t just about the future though because Hurtigruten’s embrace of hybrid technology had to and does make business sense today.

A potential competitive advantage

Powered by a Volvo Penta twin D4-320 DPI Aquamatic hybrid solution, the 14.6m x 4.2m (48’x13.8’), 12-passenger Kvitbjørn has the D4 engines and the electric motors attached to one another, all tucked under the aft deck. With a top speed of 30 knots, a cruising speed of 24 knots, and a range of 500 nautical miles, it provides the range and maneuverability needed for the short, dedicated journeys that define Hurtigruten adventures on the water.

Doing so in an Arctic environment that features sub-zero temperatures meant the team had to develop an integrated heating and cooling system that doesn’t circulate seawater to avoid icing. In fact, they reduced the number of engines and added layers of software to make it safer. That sort of customization is directly applicable to the kinds of solutions that the Volvo Penta team is committed to developing for various sectors, including commercial fishing, which is where a sizable portion of their commercial business comes from.

“On the fishing side, it all depends on what you’re trying to

Jonas Karnerfors, sales project manager at Volvo Penta and Johan Inden, president, Volvo Penta Marine Business Unit, on the deck of the Kvitbjørn during the launch ceremony.

The Kvitbjørn’s battery package — 800V/100kWh. do,” Jonas Karnerfors, sales project manager at Volvo Penta, said from the interior of the Kvitbjørn. “With electric you get the high torque from the low RPM to create e ciencies during time you’re otherwise idling or burning fuel. That’s a good example of how this new technology can change the way things are being done for the better. When you can do new things, people can change their behavior. There won’t be a one size ts all solution with hybrid, which is why we believe we can make a modular system that ful lls many di erent demands. We want to try di erent systems with traditional inboards so that solutions can scale across an entire eet or sector.” Having one ship’s operations work the same way across an entire eet is an appealing concept to anyone that has more than one vessel, but even for someone that does just have a single vessel, the speci cs associated with the Kvitbjørn highlight how such features can be speci c to a core business value. For Hurtigruten, that’s all about creating a more enjoyable experience for tourists. That meant taking into account the battery size and housing, clearing the aft deck to allow visitors to experience the setting and wildlife during the near-silent operation when using electric.

Those experiences proved to be especially stark when out in the middle of the Artic Ocean on the Kvitbjørn. With literal glaciers on one side and mountains of ice on the other, the maiden voyage of the vessel brought the core business considerations that rst compelled Hurtigruten to explore this solution into focus. By design, the value they’ve created can expand and extend in to various other areas for countless other organizations.

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support, which includes commercial shing, have moved beyond traditional drive lines,” said Johan Inden, president of the Volvo Penta Marine Business Unit. “In this segment, we’re being asked to push new solutions to boatbuilders and operators because it allows crews to command better day rates, which can represent a competitive advantage. That shows it’s really not about technology but about the job that needs to be done, which the technology can support in a really powerful way. Boats will become more bespoke based on what you’ll be using them for, and that’s something we’re both supporting and embracing.”

In the past, one of the biggest challenges associated with the adoption of a new piece of technology like a hybrid solution was speci c to the technology, but as improvements have been made, it’s turning from a technology challenge into one that’s more about logistics and operations. How is the engine going to literally t into the boat? When exactly will the electromobility features be utilized? How di cult will it be to enable? Hybrid technology doesn’t support every use case, but it’s here and it can be used in an especially easy manner.

To illustrate that fact, every member of the press that was out for the event took a turn steering the Kvitbjørn, which is certainly not part of the standard tour and was under the total control of the Hurtigruten team, but illustrated how intuitive their systems are. They designed it so that just about anyone could get behind the controls, and Karnerfors proclaimed he could teach anyone to dock with the joystick in about ve minutes. After a few minutes of moving the boat on the open water, I’d agree with that, although I’d make it ten minutes.

If cost considerations can be addressed with new models like ‘powerby-the-hour’ payment programs, and the operation logistics are not the barrier to entry they once were, then what opportunities does hybrid technology truly represent in this sector? The value can be positioned in the short term and long term, with a reduction time otherwise spent idling making an impact today, but a bigger responsibility related to the sustainability of the shing industry as a whole also one that needs to be considered.

In Svalbard, the stakes associated with that responsibility are especially glaring, which further illustrates why expectations and even regulation are changing in ways that will require transformations on multiple levels.

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One For Two

Rising fuel prices might attract American fi shermen to fuel effi cient multi-hull vessels.

By Paul Molyneaux

MMA/MCCF

W

ith boats in sheries like New England lobster and Bristol Bay salmon getting progressively wider, and fuel getting more expensive, some boat designers believe it’s only a matter of time before shermen embrace multi-hull vessels. While the ferry and wind farm industries have been taking advantage of the speed, stability and fuel e ciency of catamarans for years, multihulls have been a hard sell with commercial shermen.

“You know how it is with shermen,” says Marathon, Florida boat designer Walter Schurtenberger. “They stick with what they know.”

Schurtenberger has designed a 65-foot catamaran for the spiny lobster shery, but has not had anyone build it — yet.

“I had two brothers from up the Keys who were very interested,” he says, but he thinks they dissolved their partnership and neither could fund the project on his own.

“It’s 24 feet wide and has an open stern,” says Schurtenberger. “That way they can back it up to the dock and load traps on pallets with a forklift.”

Schurtenberger estimates that his design, using two 385hp engines, could cruise at over 20 knots. “Fuel savings with a catamaran would be around 50 percent with a light

Green lobsterboat engineer Dr. Doug Read at Maine Maritime Academy expects to generate interest with the launch of a 22-foot model of the fuel ef cient trimaran.

Walter Schurtenberger believes his catamaran can provide a safe and stable work platform. He imagines his cat can back up to the dock and forklift pallets of traps aboard. boat,” he says. “That’s empty. Of course, if you have 600 traps on board, you’re not going to get that.”

Nonetheless, fuel savings are a key motivator for many marine sectors to move toward multihull vessels. In Maine, the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (MCCF) has been partnering for a decade with the Maine Maritime Academy and other organizations on the development of a “green lobster boat,” a tri-hull lobster boat that would be more e cient than the wide, often overpowered lobster boats that dominate the New England and Canadian Maritime lobster sheries.

“The initial design is for a 38-footer,” says Tom Duym of the MCCF. “They built a 22-foot version that they’re going to test.” According to Duym, Maine lobstermen who have looked at the boat have been skeptical about its stability.

“They’re wondering how it will handle in a cross sea or on the stern quarter,” says Duym. “They think it won’t handle so good.”

Professor Doug Reed at the Maine Maritime Academy has been modeling the design and extrapolating how the boat will handle at its full size.

“The model has a 37.5 horsepower Nana engine, a marinized Kubota. If I can get 12 knots with the model, I’ll be very happy,” says Reed. “That will scale up to 14-16 knots for the full sized boat. A survey that MCCF did, found that that’s how fast most lobstermen really want to go.”

Reed notes that the covid pandemic took its toll on the project, but he hopes to launch the 22-foot model by summer’s end. “I think it will generate more interest once it’s in the water,” he says.

So far, no catamarans have been reported built for commercial shermen in the U.S. and Canada. But Northern Ireland boatbuilder Gerry Smyth has designed the Maxus Cat—an 11.95 meter (39.2-foot) long, 5.5 meter (18-foot) wide catamaran trawler that is catching on. Since the launch of the rst MaxusCat, the Dignity in 2019, Smyth has built a total of 13 cats, including a 46-foot version, the Lily James launched in 2021. “They’re using them as trawlers, lobster boats, longliners, everything,” says Smyth.

Working with naval architect Ian MacCleod, Smyth transformed his initial idea into CAD drawings, and then built a wooden plug. “We took the molds o

G. Smyth Boats Gerald Smyth’s most recent launch, the 14-meter Lily James, is headed for England. Smyth is also talking to Canadian boat builder about building commercial shing cats in North America.

While naval architects and engineers in the US make drawings, G. Smyth Boats in Kileel, Northern Ireland has built 13 so far, that,” he says.

“Mostly we use the Cummins QSL9 diesel, it’s around 290 horsepower. Flat out she goes 11 knots at 1,800 rpm. At 1300 rpm they cruise at 8.5-knots,” says Smyth. “It’s not a high revving engine.” According to Smyth, together the engines burn roughly 10 gallons an hour.

“I don’t know how much more e cient they are,” he says of his catamarans. “But they’re an incredible work platform, and there’s the safety of the two engines.”

Schurtenberger agrees on the stability issue.

“The catamaran is incredible stable,” he says. Countering the Maine lobstermen’s skepticism, Schurtenberger believes that his catamaran would hardly notice a cross sea. “Sure it would lift one hull a little bit, and then the other,” he says. “But I don’t see a problem. If you’re heading into a sea, you might feel the waves between the hulls, but it would have to be substantial before it made a di erence.”

Smyth reports that he recently made a visit to the Canadian Maritimes, where several boatyards have expressed an interest in building the Maxus Cat. It’s possible that multihull may be showing up in North America in the not too distant future.

Paul Molyneaux is the Boats & Gear editor for National Fisherman and author of “The Doryman’s Re ection.”

The New Wave

When two lobster boats with a unique “beak bow” design showed up in Grand Manan, New Brunswick, they attracted a lot of attention. The Drastic Endeavor, owned by Eric Greene, and the Mass Confusion, owned by Carter Foster, were built at Construction Navale Atlantique,

By Paul Molyneaux

One of two Rorcal design lobsterboats built in Canada, Drastic Endeavor cutting through a wave off Grand Manan. Owner Eric Greene has noted shortcomings in vessel performance.

T

he bow of the Rorcal design angles down and aft from the peak, like a traditional bow, but then flares forward and downward to a point before continuing to the keel like a traditional bow. According to Didier Marchand, owner of Pantocarene, his unique bow design is intended for vessels going at high speeds.

“The design is intended to improve the seakeeping abilities of fast vessels in head seas,” says Marchand. “You have to have trim tabs to keep the trim low - when the vessel hits a wave the beak bow creates negative lift, so you don’t fly off the wave, and more important come down hard. It reduces vertical acceleration so that you are going through the wave.”

The main benefits of the beak hull, Marchand points out, besides the reduction of vertical accelerations in head seas, are a strong reduction of fuel consumption, and far better course keeping in following seas.

Pantocarene has licensed 240 various iterations of the design to builders in the UK, Australia, Germany, Canada and elsewhere. Marchand reports that longtime partner, Goodchild Marine in the UK, is booked until 2025 building Pantocarene’s ORC pilot vessels with the beak bow design.

“Most of our boats are pilot boats,” says Marchand. “Besides their sea keeping ability, some of our customers have seen a 30 percent fuel savings — going 27 knots. That is over what they burned previously at 22 knots. These boats can go twice the speed of conventional boats in 4 to 5-meter seas (13 to 16-feet).”

“They are rugged boats,” says Eastport, Maine pilot Bob Peacock. “The French pilots I know like their seaworthiness very much.”

With lessons learned from its ORC pilot boats, Pantocarene has also designed a family of Rorcal fishing vessels, which are being used all over the world. “Of course, these fishing vessels are not going to work in 4 to 5-meter seas,” says Marchand. “But we do have some fast fishing boats,” says Marchand. “There is a 12-meter gillnetter in Lorient (a French port in Brittany) that goes 28 knots. It has two, 600-hp Cummins.”

Since its introduction in the mid-1990s the Rorcal hull design has been used in a wide range of fishing boat types along with pilot and patrol boats and small ferries, all with the characteristic beak bow — also called a polyhedral bow or rostrum. Goodchild is also building a Rorcal fast fishing boat. “They started it last year and I believe they might exhibit it at Seawork [https://seawork.com] in June,” says Marchand. While he has modified the Rorcal 121 design for a French fisherman building the boat in aluminum, Marchand favors fiberglass for these vessels. “But the right hull material should be chosen according to each project and to its local context,” he says.

As Marchand tells it, the evolution of the beak hull began in 1990 when he designed its precursor and clients noticed much better trim. “Four years later, I started to work on the beak hull when a Saint Nazaire pilot asked me if I would be able to design a new hull that could, on one hand, cancel the limit in speed and the terrible behavior in following seas of semi displacement hulls, and, on the other hand, avoid the terrible

One of two vessels for the same owner in the north of Brittany, this 40-foot by 16-foot hull is designed for scalloping and pot fishing, powered by a 500-hp Scania DI13, it is expected to make 17 knots when heading out with fuel and bait.

sea keeping in head seas of conventional planing hulls.” With that goal, Marchand built a model that he tank tested, but he couldn’t sell it. “Of course, no one would build it based on a model and testing in a tank. We were able to get a subsidy to build a 17-meter prototype and sell that.” While Pantocarene has enjoyed long term success and maintained lengthy relationships with Goodchild in the UK, Hart Marine in Australia, and other yards, Marchand—along with boat owners Greene and Foster—is unhappy with Pantocarene’s North American partner, Construction Navale Atlantique.

“They do whatever they want,” he says. “The vessels have to be built in strict accordance with our drawings and specifications in order to achieve expected weight, location of the center of gravity, performance, and stability - which is not the case at all for CNA builds.”

“I didn’t like the boat at first, it moves different than what I’m used to,” says Canadian lobsterman Eric Greene. “But the more time I spend aboard the better I like it.”

While he is getting used to the boat, Greene expresses dissatisfaction with the vessel’s performance and that of the builder.

“It doesn’t do what I expected,” he says. “I don’t think it was built the way it was designed, and dealing with them [Navale Atlantique] has been a shitshow,” he says. “Carter took his boat back to have some things done and it just sat there. Finally, he brought it back.”

Construction Navale Atlantique has not responded to requests for comment. “At the moment, we don’t have a manager,” said an employee who answered the phone.

Despite the rough start in Atlantic Canada, which the designer and customers attribute to the builder, Marchand still hopes to offer the Rorcal and ORC designs to U.S. fishermen and boatbuilders.

“Before the pandemic we were looking at coming to Pacific Marine Expo (in Seattle) and WorkBoat in New Orleans,” he says. “I think it’s time to restart that project.”

Pantocaréne Paul Molyneaux is the Boats & Gear editor for National Fisherman and author of “The Doryman’s Reflection.”

Bubba Trutt, of Darien, Georgia came to Ted and Todd’s Marine Service in Beaufort, N.C., in March 2019 to berglass the hull of the 78-foot shrimp boat, the Capt Phillips.

New Life for Old Boats

If done right, fi berglass can keep old wooden boats on the water

By Paul Molyneaux

G

erry Smith took over the seafood business his father started in Beaufort, North Carolina in 1947, but he and his sons, Ted and Todd, turned to boat building there instead. “I think boat building is in our blood,” says Smith, now 78 years old. “We found we liked building boats more than selling sh.”

According to Smith, the yard has built a few steel trawlers and modi ed others over the years. “We do a lot of work on the boats from Cape May, New Jersey,” he says.

The Smiths bought an adjoining property and established a marina for the small shrimp boat eet. While the yard’s work mostly involves steel boats, the Smiths have also helped keep some of the older wooden boats a oat, including the Capt Phillips, a 78-foot shrimp trawler from down the coast in Swansboro, North Carolina.

The Capt Phillips was built in 1981 in Holdens Beach, North Carolina. “I’m pretty sure Billy Varnum built it,” says James Phillips, owner of the boat and Clyde Phillips Seafood Market in Swansboro. “She draws about 8 foot of water,” says Phillips. “When

Fiberglassing starts with sand blasting the hull, followed by an application of 5200, then a layer or two of Bi-Ply, polyester resin and a layer or two of mat.

we rst got the boat there was enough water here we could get out on high water, but the last time we went it was kind of rough and we bumped all the way, so we go out of Beaufort now.”

Phillips bought the Capt Phillips in 1993 and had a boat carpenter at Ted and Todd’s, Je Heyland, keep the vessel sound up until 2019 when he decided to glass it. “The boat was getting age. There weren’t no bad wood in it or nothing, ‘cause we went in about six years ago and redone the oor timbers and such as that, as needed. But it was just getting old enough, and we had a chance to do it, and we had a good man to do it, so we went ahead and decided to get it done.”

While many people consider berglass and wood to be a bad mix, Phillips has no qualms about his decision. “It puts new life in these old wooden boats,” he says.

According to Phillips, they took the boat to Ted and Todd’s, and Bubba Trutt from Darien, Ga., did the work. “That boy’s dad was one of the rst ones to start berglassing wooden boats,” he says. Phillips notes that the deck was berglassed when the boat was built. “We did her from the bottom up to the deck.”

Ted Smith, Gerry’s son, runs the yard and oversaw the work on the Capt Phillips. “There’s di erent ways to do it,” Smith says of the berglassing. “Bubba prefers using 5200. What they do is sandblast the whole bottom of the boat to where it takes all the

Keeping the small boat shrimp eet a oat is good business for Ted and Todd’s Marine Service, which purchased land and established a marina for the eet in 2019. paint o and it roughs up the wood enough, then they trowel on the 5200 with cement trowels. Then they start wetting the glass in with big fat rollers.” Troweling 5200 onto a 78-foot hull is a laborious job, but according to Smith, Bubba and his crew get it done. “They are workers,” he says. “There’s ve of them. They were here about a month. They time it by the moon, so they would haul the boat on the full moon and then they had a month to get it done so they could get it back in the water on the next full moon.”

Bubba Trutt is still at it, though he has slowed down.

“We did one a month and half ago,” he says. “A 70-foot shrimp boat.” Trutt staples a base layer of something called Bi-Ply over the 5200, and then applies polyester resin and mat. “We can do one or two layers of Bi-Ply, and one or two of mat,” says Trutt. “Whatever the customer wants.” According to Clyde Phillips, captain of the Capt Phillips, the boat got one layer of Bi-Ply and two layers of mat that overlapped on the knuckle (chine) and at the turn of the bilge to the keel. “Then they reinforced so there’s twelve layers on the knuckle and twelve where the bottom meets the keel,” says Clyde. “I don’t know how many they put on the stem and the horn timber. I lost count.” Calling in from shing for rose shrimp

After annual maintenance and a fresh paint job, the Capt Phillips is ready for another season bringing shrimp to Clyde Phillps Seafood Market in Swansboro, N.C.

just o the coast, Clyde Phillips reports that the boat is strong and solid.

“As long as the wood is good when you glass it, it’ll be ne,” says Bubba Trutt. “I got a boat in the yard here that we glassed more than 30 years ago.”

Paul Molyneaux is the Boats & Gear editor for National Fisherman and author of “The Doryman’s Refl ection.”

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