When Mayoman Kevin McHugh brings his new "boat" back to Irish waters, he will take the first opportunity he can to anchor off Achill island. He'll already have warned his mother, Nora, on one of a dozen communications systems on board the vessel. She'll come down to Keem Bay with her daughter, Sheila, to marvel at this latest venture.
She shouldn't have any problem spotting it, for this is no currach or punt. The £50 million (€64 million) Atlantic Dawn is all of 144.6 metres, dwarfing this State's largest patrol ship and almost 40 metres longer than Mr McHugh's existing supertrawler, the Veronica. Few ports on this coast, let alone Killybegs where Mr McHugh has been based, will have berthing space for it - no matter, for once the vessel has been fitted out in Norway the supership will rarely visit these waters.
It is bound for west Africa, where it will target horse mackerel, mackerel, sardinella, sardines and anchovies under an EU agreement with "third countries" or non-EU members. All of the catch will be chilled immediately, graded and frozen in the vessel's on-board factory.
The seafood will then be shipped or landed directly into west African markets. It will work with the Veronica and will also try out a new system of purse seining (using nets which encircle fish).
Mr McHugh (54) is embarking on another gamble, at time of his life when "I could be sitting in the sun in Las Palmas", he said. Speaking from Norway - where he has already been made an honorary Viking - he had just witnessed the hull of the new vessel hit the water. With over three decades of fishing behind him, he is one of Europe's most successful skippers and the Atlantic Dawn is one of the three largest ships of its kind on this side of the Atlantic.
He doesn't intend to be a shore manager either, but will take the helm himself. "You need three skippers, full-time, to meet the roster," he explains. "The same goes for the rest of the crew."
For the Atlantic Dawn to make its way, it must never be idle during the fishing season. Crew members will have comfortable quarters, the best of living conditions, but with seven days' steaming down to Africa they will be expected to work for their substantial earnings.
Unlike his previous commissions in Norway, which were bank-rolled by Norwegian financial institutions, Mr McHugh's financial package has been put together exclusively by Irish banks, headed by Bank of Ireland and co-funded by Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Intercontinental Bank Bank and Ulster Bank Markets.
"They approached me, and so I let them see how they could work it out," Mr McHugh says. Mr Finbarr O'Neill of Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking is delighted that the transaction was structured and financed in Dublin and that, in a very real sense, Atlantic Dawn is a totally Irish initiative. It has no EU or State involvement, apart from the moral support given by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM).
"Kevin McHugh is the foremost entrepreneur in the Irish fishing industry," Mr O'Neill says. "His track record over more than 30 years in the industry is hugely impressive, and I know that many international banks would have been very anxious to participate in this exciting project."
The words reflect the confidence in a man who is known for his sense of humour, his unassuming nature and his commitment to his "adopted" community in Donegal. Among his shore interests are the town's main hotel - the Bayview, once a ramshackle quarters on the pier - the Cope House, and a pub outside town known as the Holly Bush.
Originally from Bullsmouth on Achill, Kevin McHugh is the son of an electrician. He is one of a generation of young fishermen identified by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) in the 1960s at a time when - after years of neglect - the State had begun to take an interest in the potential of this island's marine resource. He had joined a BIM training programme in his teens, and began fishing in the Irish Sea.
In the mid-1960s, he set off on a trip to Iceland to learn more; that island's fish-based economy inspired him to stick with it, and he gained his skipper's certificate. In 1968, he bought his first boat, the 65-foot Wavecrest. He was only 21. Eight years later, he was the proud owner of his own steel vessel, the Albacore which he partly designed himself at a cost of £1.2 million.
It was the closure of the Irish herring fishery that prompted him to move to Killybegs to concentrate on mackerel fishing off the Scottish and Irish coasts. At the time, mackerel was the new quarry - able to swim almost 50 kilometres an hour, and to do so undetected, due to the lack of an air sac.
A Norwegian company's invention of an echo sounder to track it, and the fact that a market for the protein fish had developed, made it potentially lucrative. In the early years of the EU's fisheries management system, it was not subject to quota, and Killybegs made the most of that.
McHugh, and fellow skippers and owners such as Des Faherty from the Aran Islands, Mick Doyle from Wicklow,and Teddy O'Shea from Castletownbere, Co Cork, moved from boat to bigger boat, but when the Achill islander placed an order for a £12 million craft which could steam further to meet the growing demand for fish, there were those who thought he had lost it. Nevertheless, the Veronica attracted almost the whole cabinet when it eventually arrived back from Norway in the late 1980s.
In June, 1992, however, Mr McHugh suffered a setback; the ship was destroyed by fire while in Harland and Wolff in Belfast. Once the insurance was settled, the skipper ordered a replacement which returned to Killybegs in January, 1995. For Mr McHugh, his business is his passion, and there are those who say he is never better than when he is at the helm. He says he has no particular leisure interests, other than keeping fit, and spending time out with his wife, Veronica, and family - Paul (27), who manages the Cope House; Carl (26), marketing manager with the McHugh fishing company, Atlantic Dawn; Kevin (22), currently studying at the National Fisheries Training Centre in Greencastle, Co Donegal: and Noreen (19), who is studying marketing in Derry. He relishes a challenge - and one of those close to him, Joey Murrin, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, has seen him embark on many.
His son, Kevin, may be one of the 100 crew on board the 13,500 tonne ship, built in the Umoe Sterkoder shipyard in Kristiansund, Norway, when it is finished. Constructed in seven separate sections which were then welded together, it will be fitted out with processing and electronic equipment, while the accommodation and navigation areas are also being completed. Mr McHugh is unhappy with the perception that such powerful ships poses a threat to world fish stocks; he is aware that the EU's third country arrangements, funded by more than one-third of the fishery budget, have come in for some criticism from environmental groups.
"Where we will be working, off Mauritania, there are strict controls and very strict arrangements, whereby we must take a certain number of Mauretanian fishermen on board, and an observer.
"They like to see us coming, because we are paying for our investment and there is a direct return to that state."
"Those waters down there are alive with fish - like Bullsmouth - but the air and sea temperatures make it very difficult to land good quality. That's what we aim to do, and to do so in co-operation with the Mauretanians, so both of us can benefit."
That's one of the reasons for the vessel's size, he says. "It's not just about the ability to steam down there, travel long distances. It is not just about catching power either. It's about having the horsepower to fit out an onboard factory with sufficient freezing capacity to ensure the quality of the catch."
The EU's agreement is designed to ensure that there are mutual benefits, he says. "The budget pays for roads, hospitals, factories, and there is a research and training dimension of benefit to the local fishermen. They welcome us, because we come with new vessels and expertise, and we aim to sell into their market; unlike the Russians, with 25-year-old ships, landing for fishmeal.
"I depend for my livelihood on fish, and I have no interest in cleaning out the seas," he says. A renewable resource requires intelligent management, he says, and he is all in favour of it - once the system is fair.
