MORE WIND :  Specially fitted wind/engine fishing ‘alia’ struggling to enter the Fisherman’s wharf on wind power.

 Safety and fuel cuts are behind trials started last week to encourage the use of wind power for the country’s large fishing fleet of ‘alia’ (twin hulled boats).

The trails were officially launched with a demonstration at the Fisherman’s Wharf at Matafele on Friday afternoon, that involved a boat fitted with one sailing mast.

The boat with several people on board steamed out of the wharf’s enclosure into the open on engine power for about 100 meters before it stopped and switched over to its sail.

The boat however hardly moved – it was almost stationary.

“You could hardly call this a successful trial,” says Roy Peters who is working with the Fisheries Division and the fishing community on the trials.

“We didn’t go further out into the open seas to get strong enough winds to push the boat,” Peters added, “but the sail is adequet enough to give the boat speed of between 10-12 knots and that’s better than paddling.”

The trails will also look into areas like providing a box keel to make it easier to steer the boat.

“Designing a sail and steering system for these catamaran boats is no different from any other cat.boat.”

A design team expects to put in all the necessary improvements for a wind powered ‘alia’ in a months time.

A senior fisheries officer with the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Gu Savali, says the idea of putting sailing masts on fishing ‘alia’ has been in the pipeline over the years.

“We had a consultant from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in the 1980’s who actually work on the design that we trialed today,” Gu says.

“If we make this work it will save of fuel consumption and also make it more safer for our fishing community when the boat engines fail while out at sea.”

Enginer failure is the leading cause of fishermen lost at sea. Some of the survivors who were fortunate to be rescued were discovered as far out as Papua New Guinea, barely alive.

The continuing increase in engine fuel has become one of the discouraging factors preventing the fishing community from venturing further for better catches.

Gu Savali is positive the trials will determine a suitable sailing mast for the boats and also improve on the design to make windpower most viable for the fishermen to benefit from.

The trails have the full blessings of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet who turned up enforce to demonstrate support.

The launching also included the opening of a new ice making facility on the Fisherman’s Wharf to meet the needs of the fishermen.

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