AOPV parts

 Irving Shipbuilding Inc has three main facilities in Halifax. There is a steel preparation operation in Lower Burnside, a component fabrication facility in Woodside and the main shipyard site. From my observations, steel plates are prepped in Burnside and trucked to either of the other plants for assembly. 

Complex components are built up in Woodside, but they are too large to transport by road, and so they are barged across the harbour to the shipyard. Such an operation took place today, June 3 using the barge Atlantic Marlin.

The deck load on the barge consisted of two bow components and a signal mast for the next Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV). The pieces were loaded on Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) and were rolled on at Woodside and will be rolled off at Pier 6 in the Shipyard.

The 2318 gt barge, built in Nanjing China in 2000 by Jinling Shipyard, was used April 30, 2022 in essentially the same operation. This year the tugs Atlantic Fir had the barge oashed "on the hip" and the Atlantic Beaver provided push/pull when undocking and docking. 

The shipyard has the Boa Barge 37 on long term charter (red vessel in the background of the photo above) and uses it to float off new built ships. It has also been used to transport components too, but it remains registered in Norway and requires a coasting license for each use.

Atlantic Towing has the Atlantic Marlin available at this timeof the year, but it is used in summer to transport material in Hudson Bay, from ships at anchor to shallow draft ports of Chesterfield Inlet and Rankin Inlet. 

Footnote:

 That is not smoke haze in the photo today. It is light drizzle, which became heavier rain at times, and was welcomed by firefighters battling major forest fires in Nova Scotia. 

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