A LOOK BACK AT CLEARWATER MUSSELS “SOPHISTICATED” MUSSEL HARVESTER

Named Clearwater Resolution, the boat was built by Profab Engineering in Palmerston North, while FPS designed, built and installed the hydraulics system that runs all the harvesting equipment, seeding equipment, crane, anchor winch, high flow water pump, bow thruster, and steering.

The FPS team carried out the first stage of work installing the hydraulic pipework in Palmerston North, then completed the external hydraulics when the boat was shifted to Havelock.

Clearwater Mussels operations manager Mike Holland says the company has had a long association with FPS and trusted them to do a good job. “We wanted a business to design the hydraulics that would still be around in ten years to maintain the system.”

FPS sales engineer Owen Little describes the hydraulics on the Clearwater Mussel Harvester as the “most sophisticated system we’ve built to date”. He says the system is critical to the smooth-running of the mussel farming process.