Comparing three conventional penaeid-trawl otter boards and the new batwing design

Three experiments were conducted to compare the engineering and catching performances of a hydrodynamic otter board termed the ‘batwing’ (comprising a sled-and-sail assembly, configured to operate at 20° angle of attack – AOA and with minimal bottom contact) against three conventional designs (termed the ‘flat-rectangular’, ‘kilfoil’ and ‘cambered’ otter boards) with AOAs between ∼30 and 40°. Experiments involved paired penaeid trawls (7.35-m headlines). The first experiment compared the batwing otter boards against all other designs (using 41-mm mesh trawls). In experiment 2, the batwing was tested against the flat-rectangular design (with 32-mm mesh trawls). In experiment 3, the batwing and flat-rectangular otter boards were towed without trawls to facilitate estimates of their partitioned drag. Overall, compared to the conventional otter boards, the batwings had up to ∼86 and ∼18% less bottom contact and drag, respectively. Among the conventional otter boards, the trawls spread by the cambered design caught up to 13% more school prawns Metapenaeus macleayi attributed to their greater solid profile. No significant differences were detected among catches of fish in the trawls spread by the various otter boards. The results reaffirm that because otter boards contribute towards a large proportion of total system drag (estimated here at up to ∼56%), their appropriate configuration is essential to maximise the fuel efficiency of penaeid-trawl systems.