The first Grimsby-built trawler has been launched into the water from the port’s overhauled slipways.
Docks-based shipbuilder Harris and Garrod’s latest creation, Margaret Mary, was carefully lowered into Port of Grimsby East yesterday (TUES) by the centre-piece of the £1.9 million makeover, the 17m high, 200-tonne hoist.
The under-10m vessel, almost as tall as it is long to maximise returns from its catching category status, was a four month build by the Humber Quay South team, with a cockle vessel for a Boston operator sandwiched inbetween.
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While that headed through Lincolnshire by road, this vessel will be taken up the coast for final fit out in the home port of Hartlepool, where brothers Martin and Philip Walsh look forward to sailing.
Richard Harris, second generation managing director at Harris and Garrod, said: “We don’t tend to build many boats, perhaps one a year, and this is the first to use the hoist. In a lot of ways it is a better set-up, the type of vessels now using the facility lend themselves to it. Four people have worked on it permanently, and we employ 10, and all have worked on it at some point.”
Another project is now lined up, as the team plays a careful game of balancing repair work with virgin vessels.
“New builds are proving popular, yards are very busy,” Mr Harris said. “Some have two to three year waiting lists. We have another to build now, and with less and less builders, there are only so many places where you can go.”
A 15m stern trawler, Carousel, also sits on the slips, a 2005 H&G project recently re-built from the deck up following a fire, which marked the end of commercial fishing for the 58-year-old business less than three years ago.
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“We used to have a few boats, but we have trimmed that down until we just had one, and then stopped doing it,” Mr Harris said, reflecting on how the model has changed, and the skills available. “Years ago most would be company boats, now they are family boats, with one or two owners, and as far as crewing is concerned they always bet people coming through and taking over.
“To crew a fishing vessel in Grimsby now, well it’s not very easy at all.”
Servicing is though, and Martyn Boyers, chief executive of Grimsby Fish Dock Enterprises, is pleased with how offshoot Grimsby Shipyard Services is performing, since the first lift back in November 2016.
“It has taken a while for people to get used to the facilities being here, but it has now established itself and is working extremely well, with the guys becoming more adept in helping customers. We have seen a lot of routine work, maintenance and inspection, as well as emergency repairs, and now a new build is something different, and it has been a pleasure to facilitate that.”
Emerging from the workshop three months ago, Margaret Mary was rolled out before being lifted over the neighbouring shipyard boundary from the road, then lifted again onto blocks. She was completed on the slips, with the final dabs of paint applied ahead of her being carried across the yard.
There to watch were the Walsh brothers, filming the moment as a new chapter in the family business emerged.
Phil said: “We are fisherman and she will sail form Hartlepool, prawn trawling, crab and lobster fishing. Harris and Garrod had the availability to build and have done a good job, and it is a very proud day for us to see it hit the water.”
A naval architect is to conduct stability checks before she heads up north, proudly bearing the family names above the wheelhouse.