Rachel Of Ladram
BEAM TRAWLERS
Rachel Of Ladram
BEAM TRAWLER
About
RACHEL OF LADRAM
One of the recently re-named vessels in the Waterdance fleet, the Rachel of Ladram (formerly known as the Amanda of Ladram) targets mainly hake in waters off the South-West of England using static fishing gear. This low-impact, selective method is used to strategically place nets where fish are expected to be moving, and the large mesh size ensures that juvenile fish pass through the netting and escape safely. Netting is used primarily to fish for hake, as well as for haddock and pollock, while at certain times when the tides are right, trammel nets are used to fish for turbot and monkfish. With trips kept to only a few days for maximum freshness, the delicate hake that comes across Rachel of Ladram’s gunwale is treated with care as it is boxed and iced on board, with each box lowered by hand down into the hold.
Vessel Stats
METHOD: Netter
CALL SIGN: ZQEW7
REGISTERED PORT: Exeter
HOME PORT: Newlyn
PORT LETTERS: E9
OVERALL LENGTH: 18.27m
BREADTH:: 7m
YEAR OF BUILD:: 2000
COUNTRY OF BUILD: United Kingdom
CREW SIZE: 6
AREA FISHED: Area 7 / SW Approaches
FISH CAUGHT: Hake, Monkfish, Turbot, Cod, Haddock, Pollock, other mixed fish
Built in 2000 for owners in Scotland as the Asteria, Rachel of Ladram was originally a trawler designed to catch langoustine. When the original owners decided to upgrade to a new vessel, it was seen as an ideal candidate to be refitted as a netting boat and was given an extensive refit. The trawling gear was removed and pounds for the nets were fitted at the stern, while the catch handling space on the main deck was fitted out for the gentle handling that whitefish demands. Local suppliers in the South-West were chosen to convert Rachel of Ladram to its new role as a netting boat, with a new ice machine fitted, the wheelhouse remodelled and new auxiliary engines fitted, while the original 350-kilowatt main engine still has plenty of life left in it.
Rachel of Ladram measures 18.27 metres overall with a 7-metre beam and spends four or five days at a time at sea with a crew of six. Although she has an Exeter registration, Rachel of Ladram operates from Newlyn, the closest point to fishing grounds off the South-West that are often a hundred miles of more offshore.
