Skipper of Starlight Rays, James Thores, has been a fisherman for more than 30 years and a skipper for more than 20. He has shown commitment to fishing efficiency continually investing in state of the art equipment for the boat. In 2001 Starlight Rays became the first vessel to become accredited to the Seafood Scotland Quality Vessel Scheme.

 

The latest addition to the vessel and its partner ship Starlight is Scantrol’s iSym Pairlink installed in April 2009. Experience from the Faroe Islands, where 18 pair-trawlers have already installed the new technology, shows that the system has increased efficiency by up to 50 percent reducing fuel expenses dramatically.

 

Starlight and Starlight Rays operate in a master-slave relationship. The Pairlink system gives the skipper the opportunity to operate the slave vessel automatically to follow the master vessel at a fixed distance and copy its winch positions. This ensures that optimal shape and direction of the trawl is always maintained. Information from the winches and navigation data are transmitted between the two vessels and presented on the trawl screen thus giving the skipper complete control of the other vessel during trawling.

 

INNOVATORS: Operating from Peterhead Starlight Rays and Starlight are the first pair-trawlers in Scotland to install Scantrol’s iSym Pairlink.

 

 

·         Species: Cod, coley, monks, halibut, haddock