The Etale Fishing Company bought the Victory for N$18 million from its Scottish owner.

President-elect Hifikepunye Pohamba christened the most modern vessel in the Namibian fleet "Etale Victory" with the traditional breaking of a bottle of champagne over the weekend.

The Etale Victory and the Resplendent, also under charter at Etale, are five years old and were built specifically to help open up a new deep-water fishery for Scottish whitefish trawlers.

The two vessels made headlines last year when the skippers and crews undertook a historic voyage, unprecedented in the annals of Scotland's fishing industry, and sailed more than 7 000 miles over 26 days to Namibia to try and make a new living.

A report in The Scotsman at the time said fishing in Scottish waters was all but lost after the European Union imposed strict quotas on deep-water fishing and a 15-days-a-month fishing restriction.

The Victory was contracted by Hangana to catch hake, and the Resplendent to Blue Ocean Products.

Silvanus Kathindi, MD of Etale, said at the christening ceremony that the modernisation of the Namibian fishing fleet was long overdue.

"We are very proud to acquire this Spanish-built stern trawler that can fish deep in rough conditions."

Listing the unique and modern attributes of the vessel, Kathindi said she would greatly assist in reducing maintenance costs, improving catch efficiency and landing better quality fish.

Hangana last year praised the power of the twin trawler, enabling the utilisation of two nets.

"The equipment is state-of-the-art, which makes it very efficient to run and operate," said the manager at the time.

Kathindi said the vessel was the top catcher at Hangana last year.

The main engine of the Etale Victory has 2000 horsepower.

The bridge is fitted with the latest communication and navigation equipment, including echo sounders, net monitors and sophisticated track plotters.

The 33-metre long vessel has two icemakers with a capacity of five tons a day, and a desalinator producing 2,5 tons of water a day.

Kathindi said the superb standard of accommodation for the 16 crew members was light years ahead of any other Namibian wet fish vessel.

The Scottish skipper will remain on board to train the new Namibian skipper and the chief engineer.

Kathindi said the rest of the crew were Namibian.

The Resplendent is also operating with Namibians, and only the skipper and chief engineer are from the original crew.

Kathindi said Etale was able to acquire a new vessel and make other investments "amidst extremely tough conditions in the industry" because preventive measures were taken in time.

Etale spent a further N$25 million on land, buildings, jetty and quayside, which had been leased by the company since its establishment almost six years ago.

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