The first aquaculture salmon catamaran, built in Vigo’s Bay, heads to Norway
This is the first project coming to light as a result of the collaboration between AISTER and GMV
It was in February 2022 when the collaboration agreement between AISTER and GMV, the northernmost shipyard on the planet, was announced. ‘A milestone that would allow us to reinforce our eco-friendly boat building strategy’. Now, one year later and after several months of intense work, the first project resulting from this strategic partnership has already been completed at AISTER facilities in Moaña, becoming construction number 84 for the shipyard and 184 for the Norwegians.
It is the first catamaran intended for the salmon aquaculture industry. A mooring line handling vessel that will work as a tool to control and move cage’s location, as well as for the lines maintenance.
A boat that is simple but which, in turn, has several peculiarities: it is refrigerated by keel coolers, (external refrigerators attached to the hull). It has transversal manoeuvring propellers, forward and stern; she has two propulsion engines, with shaft lines with controllable blades, known as variable pitch, and a generator.
15 m-Length and 10 m-Width, the NJORD catamaran also has a hydraulic installation for feeding all the hydraulic equipment, a winch and several deck equipment, including two cranes, one of 65 t ·m and another one of 33 t·m.
The first in Spain built with friction welded panels.
There have been, without a doubt, several months of very intense work for AISTER from the beginning of the construction to the launching and completion of the project. A job that, ‘thanks to the union between our shipyard and GMV's, has been successfully achieving a new milestone as it is the first catamaran to be built in Spain using friction-welded panels’. On this occasion, ‘the project has had a Norwegian design and at AISTER we have manufactured the hull, the hydraulic and electrical installation, the pipes, the painting, the fitting-out and the insulation, apart from the assembly of all the equipment, both interior and exterior deck’.
The NJORD, heading to Norway
With the construction and equipment work completed, the NJORD was launched this week in the Vigo’s Bay and on Wednesday, February 8, it was loaded on board the ship in charge of transporting it to Norway, where it will begin operating for Mortenlaks shipowner , known for its bet and its sustainability commitment.