Newest pilot boat

 The newest pilot boat for the Atlantic Pilotage Authority arrived today, May25, from Aviles, Spain as deck cargo on the ship Acadia Desgagnés. The ship used its own cranes to lift the boat and place it in the water at Pier 9B. Much of this activity was not visible from shore, but I expect there will be photos taken from the ship on social media sometime soon.

 

Once safely in the water the boat was moved to the pilot dock in Dartmouth by another of the pilot boats, the Nova Pilot.

 The Nova Pilot (ex SC Lynx) and its near sister boat Scotia Pilot (ex SC Cheetah) were acquired in 2017 from the Netherlands, and are "fair weather" boats. The new boat is expected to operate in all conditions. The APA has only been operating one all weather boat in Halifax, the Capt E.T.Rogers. A second all weather boat is expected to reduce the number of cancellations and provide a back-up.

The new boat is named Foundation Pilot and unlike the two fleet mates, does not appear to be water jet propelled as far as I can tell. I have no more details at present, but will post when available.

(The name "Foundation" seems to  commemorate the company Foundation Maritime which took over harbour tug operations in Halifax harbour in 1935 and achieved fame as a leading marine salvage operator with their legendary tug Foundation Franklin. The parent company Foundation Company of Canada was also a large engineering and construction firm. They sold the tug operations in 1973.)

Transport Desgagnés, ownersof the Acadia Desgagnés is a Quebec based company that operates tankers and dry cargo vessels. Many of its dry cargo ships are used for northern supply in the summer and are flagged out to operate internationally for the rest of the year often working for BBC Chartering.

The Acadia Desgagnés was launched as the Montelema by Shandong Balbuting, Rongcheng and completed as BBT Ocean in 2013. It was soon renamed Sider Tis and was acquired and renamed by Desgagnés in 2017. It is a 7875 gt, 11,353 dwt vessel with two 30 tonne capacity cranes. Each year it carries the Canadian flag for six to eight months then swithches to Barbados flag. I expect it will reflag back to Canada while in Halifax.

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