By Alan Haig-Brown
No doubt the truest testament to the success of a vessel is the building of a sister ship. That has recently been demonstrated by the owners of the Porto Belo I that was launched in May of 2008. The company, Maritima MDQ S.A., returned to the same builder, Astillero Naval Federico Contessi y Cia, SA, for a sister ship which was launched January 8, 2011. Both vessels were built to a design owned by the shipyard.
The 23.98 by 6.7-meter Porto Belo II has a 125 cubic meter fish hold capacity and tankage for 30,700 liters of fuel and 15,500 liters of potable water. Accommodation is provided for up to ten crew in four bunk rooms with the skippers room aft of the wheelhouse and the balance in the aft hull.
Power is provided by a single six-cylinder Cummins KTA19M3 engine generating 600 HP (447 kW) at 1800 RPM which turns a nozzled propeller through a Twin Disc reduction gear. This arrangement gives the vessel a 9.5-knot design speed when running light and up to 3.5 knots when towing a trawl.
Auxiliary power is provided by a Cummins 6CTA 8.3 G2 and a 4BTA 3.9 G4 engines.