SMS delivers aquaculture workboat for Maltese fish farm

The SMS Group in Southampton has delivered a new build 24m aquaculture vessel to a Tuna farm operator in Malta.

This latest vessel has 24m LOA, 8.5m beam, and a 3m draft. She’s been built to the MCA-MGN-280-Catergory 1 (150nm from safe haven) workboat code.

Her principle purpose will be tuna harvesting and aquaculture/fish farm logistical and maintenance support.

“This represents a major investment for Fish and Fish Ltd, and it illustrates not only the strength of our business but also our belief in the environmental sustainability of the aquaculture industry here in Malta,” says David Azzopardi, Director of Fish and Fish Ltd. “Having met SMS at Seawork in 2017, and then latterly concluding the purchase post Seawork 2018, we think the quality of the product is superb – and the level of flexibility and customer commitment illustrated by SMS is genuinely exceptional.”

“The finished project is fantastic, and this is another great example of ‘best of class’ British engineering and our proven partnership with Walker Marine Design,” says Dave Chaffers, the General Manager of SMS in Southampton. “As a business our focus clearly remains on ship repair, however this build helps to illustrate both our capabilities and our expertise.”