The Marine Team engineers have just taken delivery of three fishing boats, all to be fitted with new engines in the coming weeks.
The three crabbing boats, Three Jays (Freewood 35 replacing a very leaky Sabre 180 with a Doosan) and Galcadora (Freewood 35 replacing a Sabre 130 with a new Perkins M130), both from Newquay; and the 8.5m wooden-hulled Lucy Marianna from Helford replacing her Mermaid Melody II with a new JCB-based diesel, are having their engines replaced using grant funding from the EU and are aiming to be back at work by the end of February. Whilst the grant application process has been nothing short of diabolical, the approvals have all been confirmed and we have now been able to make a start on the projects.
Three Jays and Galcadora are having their old engines removed this week, whilst Lucy Marianna’s old Mermaid diesel was removed 10 days ago and we have already come across our first snag: all of her keel bolts also need replacing as well as her keel band. Each project will pose its own challenges, not least Three Jays which will need some clever engineering to effectively couple the engine and shaft, and all three are also having additional items like batteries, stern gear and fuel tank work carried out whilst the engines are out of the boats.
We have a few more fishing vessels with grant applications on going, hopefully they will come to fruition before the funding deadline in June 2014.
