The smallest boat to install Notus is the 9.8 meter trawler Millie-G FH21 owned
and operated by Paul Blewett of Camel Fish in Padstow.

Seafield Navigation, the Scottish distributor for Notus fitted the Trawlmaster.
Fran West, owner of Seafield, comments: “The challenge with boats this size
has been maintaining the balance in these small doors. Larger heavy sensors
upset the door behavior by adding drag and toppling the doors.”

Notus sensors weigh just 1 kg in water which means that they do not add extra
drag or unnecessary weight to the doors.

The Millie-G uses 4 1/2 foot Dunbar doors on a light single bottom trawl, and
midwater doors/trawl for seasonal pelagic fishing. Working in water as shallow
as 5 or 6 fathoms with wire lengths out to 175 fathoms meant an innovative
approach was needed. On the doors, the Millie G monitors doorspread, wire
length and door angle. Also door depth is used on the midwater gear to ensure
the optimal door attitude.

The addition of Headline Height and Footrope sensors give: net opening,
distance to the bottom and footgear clearance. While the catch sensor allows
early detection of a good catch or an early warning of a bag of jellyfish which
prove very difficult to handle on boats of this size.

Notus 's past experience with high length/depth scope ratios proved invaluable
in getting the hydrophone installation right the first time.

After initial shakedown sea trials, the rapid 5 second updates from the Notus
system removed the guesswork from the job. The headline height was found to
agree with the netmakers design and the doorspreads are responsive to the
changing water depths and bottom conditions including snag detection.