‘As always, the trip was very successful and those taking part were satisfied with the organisation, as well as with everything they got to see and hear. There’s always a satisfaction for us to meet these people and get to know them better,’ said Hampiðjan’s sales and marketing manager Jón Oddur Davíðsson following the group trip to flume tank in Hirtshals that this year took place from 27th November to 1st December.
This is the 27th consecutive year that Hampiðjan has organised this now traditional trip and this time there were 63 participants, of whom ten were staff from Hampiðjan and Fjarðarnet, three from Thyborøn Trawldoor, three from electronics company Scanmar and four from Cosmos Trawl in Denmark.Other participants were representatives of fishing companies, the majority of them from Iceland, as well as five from Russian fishing companies and two from Finland.
Interest in Wide Body Gear
‘We demonstrated scale models of pelagic and demersal trawl gears and trawl doors, and we showed comparisons of conventional and T90 codends. As usual, we offered lectures and opportunities to see new technologies. The first lecture was held by Thórir Matthíasson from Scanmar á Íslandi and the second by Hampiðjan’s Guðmundur Gunnarsson, concentrating on T90 codends and the DynIce QuickLine system,’ Jón Oddur Davíðsson said. He commented that this time there were more demersal trawls on show than usual and more discussion of handling demersal than pelagic gears.
‘What sparked the most interest was the new wide body trawls that Hampiðjan’s and Fjarðarnet’s designers have developed and produced in co-operation with HB Grandi and Samherji and skippers from both companies. These are a conventionally configured trawl and a T90 trawl with the netting turned through 90° to the flow of water which saves a significant amount of netting and provides better flow while towing.’
‘With the pelagic trawls the wide body gear for mackerel attracted a lot of interest, especially the 1760 trawl that the majority of the Icelandic and Faroese fleets now use for catching mackerel. The Russian visitors also showed a lot of interest in the smaller trawls that are more suitable for the conditions that work under. The Russians also had a strong interest in the wide body trawls that are widely used for catching Alaska pollock in Russia.’
Fantastic platform
Jón Oddur Davíðsson said that the Hirtshals flume tank is a fantastic platform for demonstrating innovations in the design and production of fishing gears.
‘This is a unique opportunity to meet our customers and to get their opinions on what we are showing them. We can see for ourselves how the gear responds to changing parameters, which is also important for our customers as often they only have a feeling for what effects gear changes make, and don’t get to see for themselves how the gear performs under realistic conditions.’
The successful visit to the flume tank ended with a closing event held at the Nordsøen Oceanarium, the largest marine aquarium of its kind in Northern Europe, with a dinner invitation for all participants by Hampiðjan, Scanmar and Thyborøn. According to Jón Oddur Davíðsson, Hampiðjan would like to express its appreciation to all the participants who took part in this memorable gathering, as well as to Hampiðjan and Fjarðarnet staff, as well as to staff from Thyborøn Trawldoors and Scanmar.
