New Bulbous Bow Longliner

Westcoaster International recently handed over the first of their new series 75 foot (23m) fibreglass bulbous bow, aft wheelhouse long liners. The vessel "Marie Charlotte" has successfully undertaken its maiden delivery voyage from Fremantle in Western Australia to Mooloolaba in Queensland. A sistership vessel "Moonstriker II" is currently undergoing trials off Fremantle. Two further 75ft bulbous bow, aft wheelhouse vessels, are on order.

Westcoaster's bulbous bow offers less hull resistance and thus better fuel economy. At constant steaming speeds the slightly improved propulsion coefficient results in less shaft horsepower being required to achieve the same speed. Visually a much smaller bow wave is most evident and the wave is much shallower & longer.
Reduced motion and improved directional stability offer more crew comfort. Less pitching occurs at sea due additional buoyancy forward and water pressure on the top of the bulb reducing the pitching moment.

The vessel has also better tracking when steaming, shooting off and retrieving line. Fully moulded and reinforced bulb is heavily grouted onto forefoot of hull thus offering further collision protection from submerged objects in front of the existing collision bulkhead.