Canadian Coast Guard vessel CCGS Garbarus Bay | Photo credit: Mel & Jer Creative
Recent reports of the delivery of CCGS Garbarus Bay prompted me to look again at the Canadian Coast Guard Bay class motor lifeboats. They are considerably larger than the USCG 47 foot MLBs. I was also reminded; we have not heard anything recently about replacements for the now retired 52 foot MLBs. The 87 foot WPBs are also nearing the end of their useful life. A large, reasonably fast MLB like the bay class could replace the 52 foot MLBs and some of the WPBs. (In other places we may need a different kind of WPB replacement.) With their smaller crew, be less expensive to operate than the WPBs. These could be the true “Fast Response Cutters” capable of responding in extreme weather when a Response boat medium or even an 87 footer could not. Might even call them Response Boat, Large.
The Canadians are procuring 20 of these large MLBs. The vessel’s particulars are as follows:
- Displacement: 62.5 tons (47 foot MLBs are 18 tons; 87 footers are 91 tons)
- Length overall: 19.0 meters (62′)
- Length DWL: 17.5 meters (57.4′)
- Beam: 6.3 meters (21′)
- Depth at midship: 2.58 meters
- Hull draft, nominal: 1.67 meters (5.5′)
- Power: 2,400 kW (about 3,200 HP, more than the 2,950 HP of the 87 foot WPBs and more than three times the power of the 47 footers)
- Speed: 23.5 kts
According to Wikipedia,
They are capable of operating in 12-metre (39 ft) waves, and in wind conditions at 12 on the Beaufort scale. The vessels’ hulls will be aluminum, not FRC (fibre reinforced composite), as with the original Severn design.
Canadian Coast Guard vessel CCGS Chedabucto Bay | Photo credit: Chantier Naval Forillon