Meet the country's greenest - and loneliest - fisherman

Gliding silently through the water on a boat powered not by smelly and noisy diesel but by solar power and electricity, he’s in a world of his own.

Nowhere else in the UK or, he reckons, the world is there another commercial fishing boat quite like Lorna Jane.

Built in 1979, the Lorna Jane was retrofitted to become the country's first solar powered fishing boat (Image: Contributed) And that’s quite surprising, he says. For having converted the 21-foot vessel to become a green machine, setting her to work 18 months ago and covering 2,500 emission-free miles in her,  no-one else has yet dared to take the plunge and join him.

If creel fishing can be a solitary career choice, even lonelier is the plight of the creel fisherman with an electric, solar powered boat.

“Everyone is interested in it, they follow the boat and pay attention to how it’s going, but there’s a reluctance to commit to doing it,” says Unkles, who has 40 years of boatbuilding and sailing behind him.

“I think people are frightened to do it.

“They think it’s a bit of a gamble. With a diesel engine, people know how to operate it, they know how to fix it.

“And this is a step into the unknown.”

Hans Unkles has retrofitted the Lorna Jane to become the country's first solar powered electric creel fishing boat (Image: Contributed)

Relaxing the grip on trusted diesel and risking livelihoods on the power of the sun and the few pontoons with an electric source, is not for everyone.

But Unkles can’t help feeling a little frustrated that, so far, he’s charting a solitary course.

“I think it comes down to attitude too,” the Lorna Jane’s skipper adds. “My generation was responsible for a lot of the waste and overuse of materials.

“But no one is prepared to give anything back.”

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Driven by an idea that there was a more sustainable and greener way to fish for what he saw were rapidly dwindling stocks of lobster and crab, Unkles cleared a space in his shed.

There, he set about converting the 1979-built Lorna Jane into a thoroughly modern boat: Scotland’s first electric commercial fishing vessel.

He fitted a canopy of photovoltaic cells that provide the power for the 30-horsepower 20kW engine throughout the sunnier summer months.

And when the darker days of autumn and winter descend, he uses an ordinary power point on the pontoon at Tayvallich to recharge her lithium iron phosphate battery.

Fully charged, she happily powers through the ten or 12 hours that Unkles requires to tend to his business on the water. He usually covers 20 miles or so, but 45 miles and even a little more is within her reach.

Undaunted by choppy waters, the Lorna Jane with her canopy of photovoltaic cells (Image: Contributed)

Although not the fastest at just five knots - a sedate 6mph - Unkles points out it’s not much less than his old diesel engine, costs virtually nothing to keep going and, besides, it’s fine for him.

He doesn't worry about range any more than he might ask how far his diesel will take him. But, he adds, he has become even more in tune with the environment around him: “You work the tides more thoughtfully, sometimes start a bit earlier.

“Because you have lower running costs, you don’t have to catch the same amount as before to end up with the same money in your pocket.”

That important point partly fuels his determination to encourage more to follow his lead.

“Over the last 20 years everything has gone up a gear, everyone wants faster boats, more creels. They’re fishing more aggressively.

Hans Unkles retrofitted the Lorna Jane in his shed (Image: Contributed)

“There are rewards from that. People do well and make a good living out of it - but I think the good days are past us.

“It’s questionable whether we can carry on as we are.”

Stocks are lower than they were when he was younger: “There are no regulations over the number of pots a boat can have, so when fishing is poor, they get more pots.

“For all that creel fishing is supposed to be sustainable, because it’s unregulated there are far too many pots.

“I have seen the catches getting smaller. 

“We should be adapting and looking at the future and this is what the future is going to be.”

His vision for an electric boat brewed for years until battery technology caught up. After all, not even a pioneering green skipper wants to be all at sea in a boat with a battery that’s on fire.

However, his lithium iron phosphate battery has less risk on that front – a crucial factor for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which is responsible for licensing vessels.

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The safer battery meant Lorna Jane could be registered, providing a blueprint for others to follow. Rather than grapple with the same red tape as Unkles, her example means they should be able to cruise through.

Having spent a total of £137,000 on his refurbished craft – including the cost of the vessel – and aided by a grant of £34,000 from fishing quango Marine Scotland, Unkles headed out onto the Sound of Jura last May convinced others would soon follow.

To help inspire his fellow fishermen, the entire effort was captured on camera by a local film-maker Joe Osborn.

Electric-powered fishing boat, Lorna Jane, retrofitted to become one of the country's 'greenest' boats (Image: Contributed)

Entitled It’ll Never Work, it shows his local Tayvallich community rallying behind Unkles as he takes Lorna Jane apart and rebuilds her, his supreme effort to hit a tight funding deadline that threatened to derail his project and the irritation of trying to untangle the red tape and bureaucracy.

The title reflects his frustrations. At one point, Unkles became so stressed – telling the camera he is “absolutely burst” – that he felt it take a physical toll.

He can’t say for sure the anxiety surrounding getting the Lorna Jane over the line and the okay to begin fishing was the reason for the breathlessness and the erratic heartbeat which led to a spell in hospital.

The Lorna Jane's battery can keep her running for around 12 hours a day (Image: Contributed)

But, he nods, it probably didn’t help.

That aside, the film – which is being shown at Arlington Baths Club in Glasgow next Friday and Saturday, November 29 and 30 - also captured the joy of finally completing his task, and the serene beauty of her silently ploughing through waters off the Argyll coastline as Unkles tends to work laying and lifting his lobster pots.

Low budget and with just two people involved in making it, since its release in March, the film has scooped a string of awards and has just been selected for a Los Angeles film festival.

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Early next year Unkles and the film will be at the heart of an effort by the Fishmongers Company in London to raise awareness of the Lorna Jane among the Cornish and Devon fishing community.

Unkles is hopeful that the thriving community of sardine fishermen along with ports with pontoons fitted with electric power points might encourage at least a few to embrace joining him so he’s no long the nation’s only ‘green skipper’.

“I launched May 2023 and have had no issues. I’ve spent £300 on repairs this year and £436 last year for small things like seals. 

"Usually, repairs might cost into the thousands. You’ve got oil changes, filters, dirty fuel, water pumps, hoses and leaks, hull penetrations… there’s a massive list of things that need repaired over a year."

In her diesel days, the Lorna Jane would gobble through around 20 litres of diesel for an outing of around 15 miles, cost Unkles around £20 per return trip.

“She’s done 18 months, and 2,500 miles and not burned any diesel at all,” he continues. 

“We’ve had a terrible summer but from March to September I only hand to plug in four times to charge the battery, yet that’s with the boat running two or three days a week entirely off solar, for around 20 miles a day.

 “My running costs are small - my running expenses are tiny compared to what they were before.”

Still, he is aware certain obstacles can put others off.

One is the tight deadline requirement that come with Marine Scotland’s funding help: he had just five months from receiving word he had been approved for funding help to getting the entire project over the line.

“There’s a lot of red tape and no real after support from the government,” he adds.

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“They have invested £34,000 of public money. If it was a bank they would want to make sure their investment is safe and you are being encouraged.

“I committed to this but feel I’m standing on my own, on the tightrope without any safety net. That’s not attractive for many people.

“If there was government support there so if you run into problems you’ll be looked after and helped through, like some kind of underwriting.”

Some of the Lorna Jane's daily catch of lobster and crabs (Image: Contributed)

His creel fishing for lobster and crab is slower and gentler than before – he uses 65 pots which is less than others. His catches are a little smaller but what he loses on a smaller catch he gains by not having to spend on fuel and repairs.

Despite that, the stressful journey to get here and the frustrations that he’s still the only one, Unkles has no regrets.

“It’s easy to criticise and pick holes in what is wrong with things, and it’s not easy to make changes.

“This has been the most rewarding thing I have ever been involved in, a real treat and a pleasure to do it.”