The decarbonization of fishing is underway.
The Le Brun armament, based in Plobannalec-Lesconil, in the Bigouden region, which employs 36 sailors year-round on nine vessels, has just acquired a new vessel for its fleet, which should contribute to this thanks to its hybrid diesel/ electric.
“It’s the Magali, a 17.50 m trawler that we bought from people from Lorient,” explains Julien Le Brun.
It was especially its almost new engine that interested us for the project, which aims to transform it, with electric propulsion powered by a diesel generator.
The ship could thus reduce its consumption by almost 20%, at least that is what we hope.
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Also read: A hydrogen boat to save fishing?
The Magali, which has reverted to its baptismal name, with the agreement of its former owners, "L'Amour de la Mer", is now anchored at the port of Loctudy and is in the hands of the naval architect Coprexma, based in Pont -the Abbot.
This would be the second boat in Brittany, after the Blue Wave in Guilvinec, to test this hybrid technology.
“It will not be simple, as a file,” recognizes Julien Le Brun, who estimates the total overhaul of the ship at €1.5 million.
We are still in the process of submitting subsidy files to the Region, the State and other institutions that can help us with the energy transition in fishing.
We hope that it will be in the water and functional in 2025. And by then, we will already have to save our skin, given the serious crisis we are going through in the industry.
Not sure I'll last like this for long.
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The 2nd hybrid fishing boat in Brittany
In the meantime, Julien Le Brun's shipyard is still making another of its boats, the Anita Conti, available to the ambitious European Pilothy project which is preparing the hydrogen fishing boat of the future.
“So here, it’s going to be particularly long and complicated,” Julien Le Brun slips this time.
This system takes up a lot of space, makes the boat considerably heavier (we go from 115 T to 165 T) and there is a problem of overconsumption of energy in all cases.
All this also leads to a lot of safety and maintenance problems, among other things.
And above all, this requires a larger budget than that initially allocated to this project…”