Seaspan in the market for two floating docks for its expansion at Vancouver Drydocks

Canada’s Seaspan Shipyards has embarked on a substantial investment to upgrade and expand the infrastructure at Vancouver Drydocks, based in North Vancouver, British Columbia. The group is currently undertaking a global procurement process to acquire the new drydocks and is looking both at newbuildings or second-hand acquisitions.

Seaspan received the green light in October 2023 from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority to expand capacity at Vancouver Drydocks and service more vessels. For several years now, Seaspan has consolidated its ship repair and maintenance projects at Vancouver Drydocks, resulting in the yard running at, or near, capacity.

The expansion of drydock capacity at Vancouver Drydocks will increase the yard’s capacity by about 30% and will result in the creation of around 100 new jobs. Besides increasing drydock capacity, the expansion at the shipyard will also see the construction of a new operations building and the complete upgrade and extension of the careen dock to enhance its capabilities.

The drydock expansion includes extending the shipyard’s current water frontage by 40m and the addition of two smaller floating docks and a new floating work pontoon to the west of the two existing floating docks. The new repair facilities will be aimed at the smaller vessel repair sector, including Canadian Coast Guard vessels, local tug/barge operations, and the BC Ferries fleet. Vancouver Drydocks currently has a workforce of 200 and repairs around 50 vessels annually, using its careen floating dock and its Panamax capacity floating dock.

In Phase 1 of the yard’s expansion programme, the existing careen floating dock will be moved approximately 40m south, away from the shoreline. The two new smaller floating docks and floating work pontoon will be located on the west side of the shipyard’s operations. The new mid-size floating dock will be equipped with four wingwall-mounted cranes. Phase 2 of the expansion programme will see Vancouver Drydocks extend its water frontage west by 40m, to accommodate the second, smaller, floating dock and a portion of the new floating work platform.

The new mid-size floating dock will have a lifting capacity of 4,500 tonnes and will measure 100m x 30m x 10m, with a sidewall height of 7m. The new small floating dock will have lifting capacity of 1,200 tonnes and measure 55m x 22m x 8m, with a sidewall height of 6m. The new floating work pontoon will measure 98m x 13m x 4m.

Meanwhile, vessels undergoing repair at Vancouver Drydocks on February 14th included:

• CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurie – 3,812gt 1986-built multi-mission icebreaker, owned by the Canadian Coast Guard. Vessel is undergoing a major six-month refit in the Careen floating dock, and will return to service in April this year
• Northern Adventure – 9,844gt 2004-built RoPax ferry, owned by BC Ferries. In the yard’s Panamax floating dock for a two-week scheduled maintenance period