SPECIALIST SOLUTIONS FOR FISHING VESSELS

Specialist solutions for fishing vessels

MacGregor: Enabling safe, efficient and sustainable fishing operations

Over its long history, MacGregor has earned an unrivalled reputation in the design, production, delivery and support of deck equipment for the global fishing market. Serving purse seiners, trawlers, live-fish carriers and fishery research vessels, the company offers deck handling systems, fish pumps and winches to maximise catch, ensure fish quality, reduce fuel consumption and support safe and efficient operations.

MacGregor’s innovative, value-added solutions are the result of a ‘by fishermen, for fishermen’ approach to research and development, which draws on discussions and collaboration with commercial fishing industry stakeholders to address requirements and support the sector’s progression.

Typifying the results has been MacGregor’s electric fish pump, whose advanced control system achieves the smooth, stepless rotor revolution changes that ensures fish quality is not compromised, as well as simplified and enhanced fish-pumping control. The system is also environmentally friendly, eliminating oil spills and offering high efficiency with low power requirements.

To address the need for greater redundancy in winch design, MacGregor offers winches with several smaller motors rather than one large motor, providing not only the required redundancy but also reduced weight and inertia and more responsive control. The nominal pull of a four-motor trawl winch, for example, is as high as 95% even if one of the motors fails.

As well as reducing energy consumption, the company’s electrically driven deck machinery cuts noise and minimises maintenance requirements. It also delivers more precise control and removes the risk of leakage inherent in high-pressure hydraulic drive systems.

MacGregor also offers the world’s largest and most powerful fishing net hauling winches. By deploying three rollers simultaneously, the winches achieve optimum grip on the net, cork and lead lines, with low-profile installations providing excellent stability in comparison with related solutions. MacGregor net winches are available in a variety of sizes, from 6 to 50 tonnes, and in both hydraulic- and electric-drive versions.

Recent projects include the supply of cranes and winches to newbuild hybrid purse seiner/trawler Libas, which was built at Cemre Shipyard, Turkey in 2021 for owner Liegruppen. MacGregor also recently supplied deck cranes and an all-electric winch system to pelagic trawler Research, built by Vard, Norway and delivered to Research Fishing Company in 2019.

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