Midshore patrol vessels for Canadian Coast Guard: some movement on project

Returning from the drawing board, er, CAD terminal (one hopes):

Midshore coast guard patrol vessels back on Ottawa radar

The Conservatives’ on-again, off-again plan to build new midshore patrol vessels for the coast guard appears to be on again.

The federal government quietly scuttled a plan last summer to build 12 midshore patrol vessels for the coast guard. Bids had been received for that program, but in August, Public Works said they exceeded the anticipated $340 million allocated to the project.

Ottawa issued a notice this week indicating it intends to put the project for "up to 12" midshore patrol vessels back out to tender.

"These vessels, which are to be used for marine security and conservation and protection, are to be capable of sustained operations out to 120 nautical miles (220 kilometres) offshore," says the notice published Thursday.

After the initial project ran aground, a source told The Chronicle Herald the coast guard was considering buying 10 midshore patrol vessels, instead of the dozen originally planned, to reduce costs [much more here on the project].

The source said the government was also looking at changing the specifications for the ships’ propulsion systems as a cost-cutting measure.

The coast guard had asked that the ships be able to operate at their peak speed at 90 per cent power when they are new. Changing that to 100 per cent would mean the vessels would be cheaper to build. But they would also get heavier when more equipment is inevitably added, said the source. Without the extra power in reserve, that means the vessels would slow as they age.

Three companies, including Irving Shipbuilding, were interested in building the vessels.

Eight of the coast guard patrol vessels were announced in the federal 2006 budget and four were part of the 2007 budget. They were to be up to 43 metres in length and travel at speeds up to 46 kilometres an hour.

The notice published this week indicates the ships are to be 37 to 43 metres long.

At least no-one in Canada builds big hovercraft:

Largest export hovercraft on trials

The latest addition to the Canadian Coast Guard’s hovercraft fleet is undergoing trials off the Isle of Wight. Mamilossa, Abenakis Indian for ‘he who goes from water to the land’, was built at St Helens on the Island by hovercraft manufacturer Hoverwork Limited and will be the largest hovercraft ever exported from the UK.

Mamilossa is seen during trials off the Isle of Wight.

The aluminium hull, 75 ton Mamilossa will be based in the St Lawrence Estuary, where it will be utilised for the deployment of buoys and ice breaking duties.

The vessel is fitted with a Palfinger 650002 marine hydraulic knuckle boom crane with a 12m outreach for lifting buoys up to 5.6 tons.

Power is supplied by four Caterpillar C32 twelve cylinder marine diesels, each producing 1,125hp. The engines are electronically controlled and meet Tier 2 emission standards. They will take the craft to a top speed of 45 knots, or 40 knots fully loaded, with a range of 660 nautical miles.

The Canadian Coast Guard has been a faithful customer to the Isle of Wight Hovercraft Industry since the 1960s, when it took delivery of its first five ton SRN5 manufactured by Saunders Roe at Cowes. This latest order will be the seventh designed and built at Hoverwork for the Canadians.

Canadian Coast Guard project manager Frank Jess said, ‘It has been a pleasure working alongside the Hoverwork Ltd management team and staff during the construction of the hovercraft. I am confident that the craft will be a valuable asset to the Canadian Coast Guard.’..

More:

...the new, 28.5-metre machine will become the flagship of a fleet of four Coast Guard hovercraft stationed on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts...

[Ron Miller, the Coast Guard's Ottawa- based director of operational support] said the air-cushion vessel will be used to: break up harbour ice, clear outlets along the St. Lawrence River in spring to prevent flooding, deploy buoys and other navigation aids in summer, and provide support for search-and- rescue and security operations throughout Atlantic Canada.

The Mamilossa is slightly larger than its east-coast sister, CCGS Sipu Muin, and the CCGS Siyay, stationed in B.C.

The new vessel will replace the 22-year-old hovercraft CCGS Waban-Aki, which Miller said is scheduled to carry out icebreaking duties this month along the St. Lawrence but is nearing the end of its useful life...