Yell’s new well
North Isles Marine, which is based on the island of Yell, has more than doubled the size of its wellboat fleet recently, with the purchase of the MV Settler from Sølvtrans.
The vessel, which was built at the Aas Mek shipyard in Norway in 2002, had previously been under contract to Scottish Sea Farms, but Gibby Clark of North Isles felt it was a good time to increase the family-run firm’s fleet capacity.
“Since we set up the company in 2008 we’ve just had one vessel, the MV Nordholm, which at 330m3 provides all wellboat services, but is mainly chartered for smolt transport and treatments for Scottish Sea Farms,” he reflects.
The new addition can also provide all wellboat services, but is mainly engaged in harvesting.
“The Settler is 650 cubed and – as one of the original wellboats to be fitted with moving bulkhead technology – is very biosecure and ideal for harvesting fish,” explains Gibby. “It’s being used to bring up fish from Orkney to Scottish Sea Farms’ processing plant in Scalloway at the moment”.
The deal was secured with a seven-figure loan from Clydesdale Bank, helped in part by the fact that that Gibby had secured a full time contract with Scottish Sea Farms, and it has created nine jobs for the firm.
“We’ve managed to train up a good crew, from a mixture of aquaculture, fishing and the merchant marine,” says Gibby. “With the state of the offshore industry it was a good time to recruit.”
Gibby, however, seems remarkably relaxed about the deal, despite its size, and is already looking to add a third vessel to the fleet.
“There are very few wellboats available in Scotland for doing treatments,” he explains, “as most of the Norwegian ones have been kept busy in Norway since the arrival of AGD. And, as a result, we’re hoping to commission a newbuild 1000m3 vessel which could be used for treatments by all the salmon producers – in Shetland, Orkney and the West Coast.”
However, he admits, it’s not the easiest time to have one built – the same problems with lice and AGD that are keeping existing wellboats so busy in Norway have also created something of a backlog of orders for boatyards such as Aas Mek.
“We have not signed with a shipyard yet," he says, "but hope to have the build started within a year and completed 16 months after that.”
