A pair of new Canadian Coast Guard search-and-rescue lifeboats have been offloaded in Victoria, where they will stay for a couple of days before leaving for their new stations.
One lifeboat will be heading to Tahsis, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, while the other is destined for Hartley Bay, off B.C.’s northwest coast. The two communities have been named as new search-and-rescue stations.
The vessels were transported to B.C. on the deck of the Atlantic Condor, which carried them from Dartmouth, N.S. They are currently at the Victoria International Marina, One Cooperage Place in Songhees.
The sturdy high-endurance vessels, called CCGS Cadboro Bay and CCGS Florencia Bay, will be used in a range of jobs, from carrying out searches to responding to distress calls, helping disabled vessels and getting involved in environmental response operations in case of a spill or similar event.
They can right themselves if they capsize, are able to travel 100 nautical miles offshore and have a top speed of 25 knots. Each is 62 feet (19 metres) long.
The vessels, known as Bay-class boats because each is named after a bay in Canada, are among 20 being constructed under Canada’s national shipbuilding strategy.
The Cadboro Bay was constructed at Chantier Naval Forillon in Gaspe, Que., and the Florencia Bay was built at Hike Metal Products Ltd. of Wheatley, Ont.
The first contracts for 12 lifeboats, totalling $89.2 million, were awarded in 2015. In 2018, the contracts for the remaining eight boats, totalling more than $61 million, were awarded.
