Seaspan Shipyards

When it comes to the importance of vessel lighting, seeing really is believing.

Marine lighting design and manufacturing is a delicate balance between aesthetic appeal, technical demands, and environmental considerations.

Seaspan didn’t have to look far to find the right lighting specialist – they turned to Glamox Canada, a global leader in marine and offshore lighting products with more than 30 years of experience designing lighting solutions for the Canadian and U.S. governments, in addition to many commercial marine and offshore projects. They supply Canadian manufactured products, with a 100% Canadian workforce.

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The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, in conjunction with Seaspan, is proud to be donating $5.26 million to establish the Trades Training Centre at Camosun College’s Coastal Centre located in Esquimalt, B.C., adjacent to Seaspan's Victoria Shipyards. By enhancing workforce development and offering resources for students entering the trades, the Trades Training Centre will be instrumental in tackling the pressing national shortage of skilled professionals in this sector, which is essential for Canada’s economic stability. The training centre will also adopt an ‘Indigenous First’ approach, offering scholarships and prioritized access to Indigenous students.

More information can be found in the attached press release, along with quotes from:

1. Lane Trotter, President, Camosun College
2. Jon Bennion, Executive Director, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation
3. John McCarthy, CEO, Seaspan Shipyards

Techsol Marine is proud to announce that they have been awarded two significant contracts with Seaspan Shipyards to equip siz new Multi-Purpose Vessels. Leveraging their expertise, they will design and manufacture advanced bridge consoles tailored specifically to the needs of these vessels.

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Rutter Inc., a leading provider of advanced radar solutions, is proud to announce a collaboration with Wärtsilä, a global leader in smart technologies, and Seaspan Shipyards, a leading shipbuilder, to deliver the cutting-edge sigma S6 Oil Spill Detection and Ice Navigator™ systems for a new icebreaker being built in British Columbia, Canada, as part of the Canadian Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Program.

The collaboration between Rutter Inc., Wärtsilä, and Seaspan underscores a shared commitment to innovation, safety, and environmental protection in polar regions. By combining Rutter Inc.’s expertise in radar-based technologies, Wärtsilä’s marine technology, and Seaspan’s vessel construction expertise, the companies aim to provide comprehensive solutions tailored to the unique challenges of the high Arctic environment.

Rutter’s sigma S6 Oil Spill Detection System leverages cutting-edge sensor technology and real-time data analysis, empowering operators to swiftly identify and address potential oil spill incidents, safeguarding sensitive ecosystems and wildlife habitats.

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Seaspan's Vancouver Drydock (Seaspan) is pleased to announce the successful completion of the Canadian Coast Guard's CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Vessel Life Extension (VLE). After undocking at the end of April 2024, the vessel completed an in-water work period in preparation for ship commissioning and sea trials.

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Seaspan Shipyards (Seaspan) is proud to launch the Canadian Coast Guard's flagship science vessel, CCGS Naalak Nappaaluk, Canada's newest and most modern research vessel.

The fourth ship designed, built and launched by Seaspan under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, it marks the culmination of years of hard work by the dedicated Seaspan employees and partners, as well as hundreds of others across Seaspan's cross-Canada supply chain who worked on the vessel.

The offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel (OOSV) is a floating laboratory that will serve as the primary oceanographic science platform for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. As a Polar Class 6 vessel, it will be a highly advanced ice capable ship equipped with the latest scientific research systems. The new ship will provide increased capability and capacity to support marine surveys and scientific research on ocean currents and the seabed in Atlantic Canada. It will also contribute directly to increasing our overall understanding of the impact that climate change has on the oceans.

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Vestdavit landed its biggest-ever order, a deal to deliver  davits for six multi-purpose vessels being built for the Canadian Coast Guard at Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver. 

It will initially provide a total of six FF-15000 davit systems - one for each vessel - with options for another 10 units. This follow an order that it won last year with Seaspan to supply RHIB davits for the Polar Icebreaker also under construction for the Canadian Coast Guard.

The hydraulically operated FF-15000, which is an adaptation of a larger FF-type davit delivered for an earlier project, is based on the F-frame system that comprises a large frame with no structure behind or underneath the daughter craft. This allows for greater flexibility in the shape and volume of the boat being handled, with the main structure aft/forward of the boat.

The flexible, deck-mounted davit, with a 15000 kg safe working load (SWL) capacity, can operate in both single and dual-point configuration for optimal performance with various sizes of craft.

It will be able to handle both a 9m self-propelled barge and 7.5m RHIB, as well as a 20-foot ISO container by incorporating into the system adjustable lifting points that allow for handling of boats and containers with different lifting points, size and weight.

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Seaspan’s new drydock recently arrived in the Vancouver Harbour via a heavy lift ship and with some help from three Seaspan tugboats, the new drydock is now anchored near the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge as it awaits a new paint job.  

This drydock is part of a planned expansion at Seaspan’s Vancouver Drydock and will increase Seaspan’s capacity for ship repair projects by about 30 percent, which will result in approximately 100 new, well-paying local jobs.

The new drydock is the larger of the two drydocks that Seaspan has planned, and both will be installed following the construction of a work pontoon, and other in-water works such as the installation of piles.

Seaspan Vancouver Drydock is an integral part of the marine and Port sector and provides maintenance, overhaul, and repair for customers like BC Ferries and the Canadian Coast Guard. The drydock expansion will increase Seaspan’s capacity to support the West Coast marine industry.

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A BC Ferries vessel hasn’t been built in British Columbia since the start of the century, but later this month, the ferry company is slated to put out a competitive call for builders of its next seven major vessels.

B.C. shipbuilding giant Seaspan along with unions and suppliers have launched a new campaign dubbed Build Ferries BC that aims to have those vessels built here.

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Today at CANSEC, Canada’s leading defence & security tradeshow, Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards presented its progress towards completing the functional design on the first heavy Polar Icebreaker in Canada in over 60 years. Functional Design of the vessel is now more than 70 per cent complete and 3D modelling of the vessel is well advanced, setting the stage for Seaspan to cut steel on the flagship of the Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreaking fleet before the end of the year.

 With Canada’s current largest Icebreaker, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, expected to retire at the end of the decade, the new Polar Icebreaker will be one of the world’s largest, most capable and powerful icebreakers. While designed and built before the implementation of the Polar Code, the Louis’ capability is akin to a Polar Class 4. Canada’s operational requirements drive to building a new Polar Class 2 icebreaker that can independently operate anywhere in the Arctic year round – this capability includes the ability to operate at -50 degrees Celsius which introduces considerable complexity to the design and build of the vessel.

Most icebreakers primarily break ice.  The new Polar Icebreaker will also be capable of fulfilling many different demanding missions necessary for Canada including a wide array of Arctic science missions, search and rescue, security, navigation, transportation and emergency response.   This impressive range of capabilities also adds to the design and engineering challenges that are being addressed by the Canadian Coast Guard and the Seaspan team.

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B.C. Ferries has issued a notice that it intends to split ­drydocking and repair services for its fleet between three B.C. shipyards.

The plan is for the majority of work to go to Victoria’s Point Hope Maritime Ltd., at 46 per cent, and Seaspan ULC, also at 46 per cent. Seaspan owns Vancouver Shipyards and has its own drydock in North Vancouver and owns Victoria Shipyards. Various companies rent the huge federal Esquimalt Graving Dock.

Vancouver’s Allied Shipbuilders Ltd. which has two floating drydocks, would receive eight per cent of the work.

B.C. Ferries estimates the total value of drydocking work will be at $14.5 million per year for the next five years.

Contracts, called master service agreements, would be for five years, with the option to extend for up to 10 years, said B.C. Ferries spokesman Jeff Groot.

The aim is for contracts to begin in the second quarter of this year.

Work would be “bundled” into contracts. B.C. Ferries normally awards individual contracts when vessels need to go into ­drydock but, about five years ago, it bundled seven vessels to Point Hope Maritime.

Both Point Hope and Seaspan will work on minor, intermediate and large vessels. Allied will work on minor and intermediate-sized vessels.

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Technology group Wärtsilä will supply the engines for a new Canadian Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker. The ship is being designed and built at Seaspan Vancouver Shipyards and will be the flagship of the Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreaking fleet. Because of the long operational range required for the vessel’s employment in arctic waters, fuel efficiency was a prime design consideration in the selection of the Wärtsilä 31 engine. The Wärtsilä 31 engine has been recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s most efficient 4-stroke diesel engine and was therefore considered an obvious choice. The order was booked by Wärtsilä in Q3 2023.

The 158 metre-long multi-mission Polar Icebreaker will operate under PC2 conditions with four 16-cylinder and two 8-cylinder Wärtsilä 31 engines, delivering 47 MW of power. The engines will be fitted with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems for IMO Tier III environmental compliance. Wärtsilä will also supply the centre shaft line with a stainless-steel ice-class propeller, as well as Wärtsilä’s NACOS Platinum navigation system.

“Wärtsilä has a fine track record and years of experience in delivering high-class marine technologies including recently delivering the propulsion equipment for the Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels (OFSV), plus the diesel generator sets for the Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel (OOSV) built at Seaspan for the Canadian Coast Guard,” commented Leo Martin, Senior Vice President – Programs, Seaspan Shipyards.

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Propulsion has been selected for a series of Polar-class emergency response and security vessels being built in Canada

Seaspan Shipyards is building six multipurpose ice-breaking vessels designed by Aker Arctic for the Canadian Coast Guard as part of the national shipbuilding strategy to operate in Canadian waters.

It has contracted Steerprop to provide Polar Class 4 (PC 4) propulsion packages for these newbuild vessels, including two contra-rotating propulsors (CRP) for main propulsion and two tunnel thrusters for auxiliary manoeuvring for each ship.

These will be designed, engineered and manufactured to meet the stringent operational demands of the vessels in Arctic waters and along the seaboards of Canada.

CRP units facilitate efficient ice management, which is important for maintaining safe navigation channels and responding to emergencies in icy conditions, while reducing energy consumption and emissions.

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Ottawa – Gastops, a global leader in intelligent condition monitoring solutions, announced a significant contract award from Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards (Seaspan) to support the Canadian Coast Guard’s Multi-Purpose Vessel (MPV) Project.

Gastops is a long-standing provider of specialized propulsion system integration services to Naval, Coast Guard and system integrators, shipyards, and marine control system companies around the world.  Gastops utilizes dynamic simulations to validate propulsion machinery selection, develop and substantiate propulsion machinery control algorithms, evaluate propulsion machinery performance, and support the marine propulsion system design process. 

Under this agreement, Gastops will leverage its expertise in dynamic simulations of marine propulsion and electric plants to evaluate and optimize system performance and efficiency of the MPV’s propulsion machinery through a process referred to as Dynamic Response Analysis (DRA).

The contract requires a comprehensive DRA of the Electric Propulsion System to verify control algorithms for the propulsion system, assess performance of the propulsion machinery, and aid in design of the electric propulsion system. The use of a dynamic simulation model of the ship will allow the propulsion and integrated electrical systems to be analyzed for all anticipated vessel maneuvers.

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Eighty years ago, if you were to look down the shoreline from where Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards currently sit, you would have seen a flurry of non-stop activity by shipbuilders on the North Shore who were kept busy throughout the war effort to replenish the Allied fleet of merchant ships — critical for carrying supplies and equipment to the theatres of war in Europe and Asia. Fast forward to today, and supply ships for the Armed Forces are once again being built in North Vancouver at Vancouver Shipyards.

Shipbuilding in North Vancouver

Shipyards on the North Shore produced close to half of Canada’s total output of vessels during wartime and helped elevate the industrial waterfront into one known for its shipbuilding prowess. Today, the maritime influence on the region remains. Where Victory Ships were once being built during WWII, now stands a bustling community of restaurants, retail shops and condos: an area known as “The Shipyards”, where remnants and memorabilia of the wartime shipbuilding boom have been preserved for today’s generations to see and appreciate. Nestled in alongside this new community, is Seaspan’s Vancouver Drydock, where over 200 people perform ship repair and maintenance on a variety of Canadian Coast Guard and commercial vessels.

For a period of time, shipbuilding in British Columbia, and elsewhere across the country, had been forgotten. A country with an abundance of natural resources and industrial capabilities is no stranger to boom & bust cycles – and shipbuilding was no different. Since the 1990s, construction of large vessels in Canada was essentially non-existent. And, just as importantly, gone with it was all of the accompanying knowledge, expertise, and hands-on skills.

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