Allswater

Halifax, NS and St. John’s, NL

Allswater is a naval architects and engineering firm with offices in Halifax, NS and St. John’s NL.

In business for the past 16 years, their primary work is related to the design and build of workboats and fishing boats of all sizes and which are sold locally and internationally.

The company threw its hat into the ACOA Hull Challenge for several reasons.

“The fishing industry is one of our most prominent industry sectors. We wanted to showcase the work that we have done on other vessels, and provide a concept in a size that suits the Eastern Canadian inshore fisheries.”

Allswater says they like the idea of creating innovation in the region. “Eastern Canada has a thriving marine industry and much of it focused around developing marine technology. It’s great to see this (challenge) extended to the local boatbuilding industry to fuel the modernization of fishing vessel design and operations. This will help to promote innovation throughout the sector, and we want to be a part of that.”

TriNav Marine Design Inc.

St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador’s TriNav Marine Design has been designing fishing boats for the Atlantic Canadian market for 25 years.

The company submitted its proposal to the ACOA Hull Design Challenge to fine tune one of their existing designs.

“We wanted to incorporate some innovative design features into our typical and popular 14.9 meter fishing vessel. The fishing industry has always needed to be innovative, and this (Challenge) is an important step forward focusing exclusively on hull efficiency.”

What do they think of the challenge format?

“With 25 plus years experience and a leading designer of fishing boats in the Atlantic region, we felt we needed to be a participant. Competition in a friendly challenge is always interesting.”

Wedgeport Boats Ltd.

Lower Wedgeport, Nova Scotia

Builders of commercial fishing and aquaculture vessels for over 20 years, Wedgeport Boats Limited sells its boats throughout Atlantic Canada, Quebec, British Columbia and the northeastern United States.

There are a couple of motivations behind Wedgeport Boats’ application to the ACOA Hull Desgin Challenge.

“We really like the idea of designing a hull which will save both time and fuel costs while not compromising what traditional fishing vessels have evolved into in this present day. This Challenge also allows us to design and promote another unique variation of a hull into the custom boat building industry.”

And for Wedgeport Boats Limited, the Challenge approach provides additional benefits. “This challenge allows us the opportunity to be involved in a friendly competition with others in the industry, and it allows us to see the different skill sets of the pretty amazing individuals we work with in building our vessels.”