THEME 4: MARINE BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES/FISHING AND aquaculture

THEME 2: SHIPBUILDING AND LEISURE BOATBUILDING

Reducing fuel consumption is essential for the survival of a number of fishing businesses whose expenditure on diesel oil is now equivalent to almost a quarter of their turnover. In response to what will certainly be an ever-increasing problem, the Grand Largue project proposes to use the wind as a free power source, but revisited in a high-tech way and adapted to the constraints of maritime industry vessels. The project does not involve dispensing with diesel oil but combines propulsion under sail with the reliability of engine propulsion. The pilot of a vessel, assisted by decision-making software tools, controls the connecting up of renewable energy with fossil fuels to attain optimum energy efficiency.

To make the technology accessible in terms of cost and return on investment, Grand Largue is relying on advances tested on leisure craft which will be adapted for use on fishing boats. The equipment must be durable and the sail trimming and wind/engine power connecting systems completely automated and optimized. Depending on winds and currents, the vessel’s skipper will plot a course, and the introduction of artificial intelligence systems will allow the software to learn automatically by continually integrating variables and parameters.

Having been initially trialled on board a decommissioned 16-metre trawler, Grand Largue will then be tested in real operational conditions on sardine and scallop fishing boats belonging to boat-owning partners in the project. It will therefore be possible to transfer the Grand Largue technology at an acceptable cost to boat-owners creating a benchmark for future fishing boat as well as coastal vessel design.

GRAND LARGUE PROJECT PARTNERS

Companies

• Avel Vor Technologie in Quimperlé, the company directing the project, works on optimizing solutions for the maritime industry and is involved in technology transfer arising from research work carried out by its designer who has become particularly renowned for applications using fuzzy logic and automatic learning

• Cabinet SDA in Quimper is a naval architects’ and maritime engineering firm involved in design and restoration of sailing boats and working vessels

• Morgère in Saint-Malo is a marine ironworks and world leader in the manufacture of trawler hatches

• iXElek, Loctudy : sale, installation and repair of marine electrical, electronic and IT equipment. Created from a merger of the EBS and SEDAM companies in May 2008, iXElek has more than twenty-five years of proven excellence, serving private as much as business clients in sectors of the maritime industry including : fishing, naval and military, oceanology, merchant marine, passenger transport, boating, yachting and ocean-going racing.The company operates along the entire Breton coast, offering its services via its 9 agencies and shops

• OBC in Vulaines sur Seine (77) is the OCEANITE Boat Concept Company specialising in the design and construction of customized boats – fishing, working and transport vessels using all types of propulsion – as well as navigational components and accessories

• Scapêche in Lorient operates 7 trawlers in EU fishing grounds off Northern Ireland and the west of Scotland.

• Wakan Tanka in Lesconil will shortly be operating two 17-metre fishing boats, currently under construction, employing seine or round haul nets

Research centres

• INSA in Rennes: Mechanical engineering and informatics laboratories

• Institut Maritime de Prévention (Institute of Maritime Safety) in Lorient

Contacts 

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