Macduff Ship Design 2025 review of the year

Now that 2025 has come to a close and the new year is upon us, we wanted to have a look back and celebrate the Macduff Ship Design vessels that were delivered during 2025. It was a busy year for us, and we would like to take a moment to thank all our customers and partners for working with us on these projects.

We started off the year with the delivery of 2 x 14.0m Line Handling Workboats to SAAM Towage Canada. The vessels were built by Cheoy Lee Shipyard, and their simple designs allow them to complete multiple roles as a general workboat or line handling vessel. The vessels are fitted with twin propellers and Kort nozzles supplied by Kort Propulsion to achieve a 10T Bollard Pull.

Next up we had the delivery of ‘Fruitful Harvest’ and ‘Fruitful Bough’ to Blueshell Mussels of Shetland. The vessels’ construction was contracted to Skagen Ship Consulting, who worked with their chosen shipyard, Etkin Marin of Turkey. These 20m Mussel Harvest Vessels were designed and built to operate around the Shetland Islands and meet the low water and air draft requirements for operation around these islands. The vessels are also arranged with both bow and stern thrusters to ensure manoeuvrability.

‘Gracious’ is a full new design of fishing vessel, designed in partnership with Macduff Shipyards, and is arranged for twin rig trawling in the North Sea. The vessel was built by Macduff Shipyards for MV Gracious Ltd. The vessel consists of a new hull form developed with the help of the Wolfson Unit in Southampton who utilised CFD technology to reduce hull resistance and improve the wake that the propeller operates in. The vessel also features a new design of rudder developed by the yard in conjunction with the Wolfson Unit.

The next vessel is ‘Bradan an Eòlais’ which was a catamaran style workboat built by Macduff Shipyards for Bakkafrost Scotland. This 18.5m vessel comes equipped with two cranes and can carry up to 70 tonnes of deck cargo. The vessel has a wide beam of 9.6m to provide a stable work environment while the vessel assists salmon fish farms across the west coast of Scotland.

Next, we have the ‘Tor Boreas’ which was a collaboration with Tor Group. The vessel was built at their facility in Tuzla Turkey and utilised a new approach to ship building that used modular assembly to enable more time off the slipway in a purpose-built facility. The vessel can work in multiple industries including the offshore wind sector. It has a diesel electric power train and twin Schottel SRP 210 FP Azimuth drives. These combined with the bow thruster give the vessel very good manoeuvrability with full Dynamic Positioning capability.  The vessel also has a gyro stabilisation unit for crew comfort and operability in higher sea states, a 1500mm x 1500mm moon pool for underwater operations, the capability to carry 70m³ of fuel and 35m³ of freshwater and an onboard sewage treatment system all of which allow the vessel to remain at sea for extended periods of time.  Arranged with an extensive deck equipment package including a main winch, 4 point mooring winches, stern ‘A’ frame and stern roller the vessel can support many operational profiles. We were delighted to have worked with Tor Group on this innovative project and look forward to future collaborations.

Next up we have the design of 2 x 21m ASD driven Workboat Tugs built by Synergy Shipbuilders India for Knowledge Marine and Engineering Limited. The vessels were named ‘River Pearl 15’ and ‘River Pearl 16’. These vessels were built to achieve a Bollard Pull of 15T. This marks our third successful collaboration with Knowledge Marine and Synergy Shipbuilders and Hydromaster Marine for the ASD drive units; we look forward to working with them in the future.

‘Naomi Jennifer’ is the last vessel designed by the Macduff Ship Design team for the year 2025 with completion late in the year. The vessel was built as an aquaculture support vessel, by Macduff Shipyards, for Inverlussa Marine Services. It has two heavy lift cranes, stern roller and tow pins / sharks jaw, main winch and mooring lock all to improve service operations and increase crew safety.  The vessel can also carry up to 100 tonnes of deck cargo. It has been designed to meet high environmental and operational standards, incorporating IMO Tier 3 compliant engines supported by a hybrid system that can store electrical energy for use during operations and for hotel load whilst anchored.