Prawn trawlers packed in like sardines!

TERRY HUTSON DESPITE THE cyclical nature of the industry, the country’s shipyards are doing quite well at present thanks mainly to the oil and fishing sectors in Cape Town and Walvis Bay. Even Durban, far removed from both fishing and oil drilling, has remained busy. Nowhere else is this as evident as at the Elgin Brown & Hamer yard – one of South Africa’s longest established ship repair companies – which in addition to its own quay and yard also has an 8 500-tonne capacity floating dock, plus a twin dock at Walvis Bay. Both docks are booked up – Walvis Bay in particular – but in Durban the dock recently received no fewer than eight trawlers at the same time. The fishing vessels are Spanish prawn trawlers operating in Mozambique, where it is now the off season and traditionally the trawlers of Groupo Amasua head for the sheltered waters of Durban and an annual refit on the Eldock. Known as Krustamoz vessels 1 – 8, they have undergone a complete scraping and repainting in addition to other mechanical repairs.