National Fisherman, November 2015
By Larry Chowning
The 194-foot Araho was launched July 31 at the Eastern Shipbuilding Group in Panama City, Fla., for the O’Hara Corp., of Rockland, Maine. Delivery, however, won’t be until the spring of 2016, when she will go through the Panama Canal and to the Bering Sea.
The Det Norske Veritas-classed freezer trawler is the first U.S. built factory processor in over 25 years and will be the most technologically advanced catcher-processor in the Bering Sea, says Steve Berthold, vice president of marketing for Eastern Shipbuilding.
Skipsteknisk AS of Alesund, Norway, designed the Araho.
The 194-foot Araho was launched in July. She’s the first factory trawler to be built in more than 25 years.
The Araho will be fully equipped with state of the art systems for bottom and pelagic trawling. The electric trawl winches are from Rapp Marine and can be controlled from the wheelhouse or remotely. Each will hold 9,186 feet of 1-17/64-inch cable. There are three deck cranes. An aft-mounted deck crane will be used during fishing operation. It has a telescopic boom with lifting capacity of 6,400 pounds. The freezer hold is 38,500 cubic feet.
The processing area and the selection of its equipment was done with the intention of having the largest amount of automation possible to assist the processing crew, says Berthold.
Noise reduction and privacy were two considerations in designing the boat. There will be bunks for 50 with mostly two-man staterooms and some one-man staterooms. Each will have its own head and shower.
The Araho measures 194’ x 49’ x 19’ 4”. She’s powered by a 4,000-hp at 900-rpm EMD MEL16-710G7. That is matched up with a vertical offset Lufkin gear with a 7.20:1 reduction. Electrical power comes from two 550-kW Caterpillar C18 generator sets, while one 95-kW Caterpillar C4.4 provides emergency power.