"Even small adjustments to engine rev settings, by as little as 20 to 30 revolutions, can result in fuel savings with little or no marked change in the boat's speed," according to Gus Caslake, project manager at non-departmental seafood body Seafish.

With the rising cost of fuel now impacting on many sectors of the fishing industry, Seafish research is focusing on improving fuel gear techniques as part of a fuel efficiency trial. Fuel-flow meters have been fitted to three South West beam trawlers for the research.

"Initial comments from skippers look promising," said Mr Caslake. "As they report changes in fishing actives and a reduction in fuel consumption as a result of installing the meters, we are obviously pleased.

"The main saving is gained during steaming. As consumption in litres per hour is displayed and can be monitored for any particular rev setting, it allows the skipper to set revs according to the speed he wishes to achieve or how much fuel he wants to consume."

Michael Corin, skipper and owner of the Newlyn beam trawler Sapphire, commented on the ongoing success of the trial. "Although it has taken time and patience over the course of a few trips to fit the meters properly and to allow them to settle down, we have managed to successfully calibrate the fuel meter to a point where we are confident that the reading given is within 70 to 80 litres of the actual fuel burned over the course of a trip - normally seven days."

Mr Caslake acknowledged it had been a case of trial and error, saying: "Fitting the fuel-flow meters has not been without its problems, as those devices tend to take quite a while to settle down before the accuracy improves. Even after this period, at times the meters have shown to be erratic in the total estimations of fuel used over the course of a week-long trip.

"The general set-up on a beam trawler is propulsion power coming from the main engine, with a smaller engine providing auxiliary power to the hydraulic winches and electric generators.

"Generally, both of those engines run off the same tank and that can cause problems in calibrating the main engine meter. Even when fuel meters are fitted to both engines, accurately measuring fuel usage has proved difficult.

"Once we overcame those initial set-up problems, we have been able to show how fuel meters may prove to be a useful tool in informing the skipper of the amount of fuel being used at any point during a trip."

article copyright THE CORNISHMAN 

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