Lynn Shellfish has spent around £350,000 on the 40-foot Sunny Morn which was lowered into Lynn's Bentinck dock before being named in a traditional champagne-smashing ceremony.

The boat undergoes about two weeks of final fittings and will be out at sea in time for the Wash cockle season which starts early next month.

Director Steven Williamson explained that she is the sixth boat that Lynn Shellfish's team of engineers have built at Lynn and replaces an older vessel in the fleet.

Sunny Morn took 18 months to build and work has already started on another even larger vessel for the mussel trade which will be ready at the beginning of next year.

Sunny Morn, he said, has been built to high specifications with the most up-to-date equipment for the job, including the latest electronics, and is more fuel-efficient than earlier models.

A crew of three will operate the new boat.

Mr Williamson, son of the company's managing director John Williamson, said that even when it comes to building and licensing a new boat the industry faces a growing burden of red tape.

"But at least last year's season was the best one for some time," he said.

"Two years ago we were scraping the barrel but last year the heavy rainfalls brought nutrients to the beds and cockles were a particularly good quality.

"We also had bountiful brown shrimps here and were able to benefit while the rest of Europe failed."

The company hired a special crane to lower the Sunny Morn into the water and Mrs Joan Williamson named the boat.