MFV “Endurance”

In 2017, KER Group were awarded the contract to supply a blast freezer as well as other components to this vessel.

• On its own, the original blast freezer on board the Endurance was capable of freezing prawns to the desirable temperature, however the defrost time was hindering the process somewhat. The additional room was installed as a way of enabling the crew to fill one blast and defrost the other at the same time in order to keep the process of freezing seamless. The new blast room was fitted with a stainless steel racking system, with slide out frames for ease of loading and unloading.

• Engineers at KER were tasked with creating the adequate space for the freezer, so an area in the existing fish hold was framed off with timber and sheeted with marine ply, then covered in fibreglass to provide a smooth, well insulated surface. Two insulated doors were fitted to the newly formed blast freezer in order to provide ease of access for the crew.

• The blast freezer’s coolers were installed in the middle of the blast freezer room, they are situated in such a way as to blow the cold air in opposite directions, giving a continuous & consistent air flow throughout the blast freezing area. A new refrigeration system was installed in the forepeak.

• KER also completed an electrical synchronizing job on the vessel’s generators after an additional generator was installed to insure adequate power was available to run the new blast freezer. A number of other minor but essential works were also carried out on the Endurance before it went back to sea.

• On its first trip back fishing, the crew of the Endurance froze 1.8 tons of squid, which are much denser than prawns, in just 5 hours in the new blast freezer. This amount of squid would normally take around 8 to 9 hours to freeze in the original blast freezer. The new blast freezer brought the squid down to -29 degrees at its core and completed the cycle with defrosted time of just half an hour.