Halifax, Nova Scotia, wins a 25 billion Boat Design and Building Contract-- WOW

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by viking north, Oct 19, 2011.

  1. Tad
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    Tad Boat Designer

    We have $25B going to Halifax for "up to" 15 Combat Ships (apparently a mix of Destroyers and Frigates on a common hull.....no one is saying who will design them or where the design might come from....but we're not going to see them for a long time (rumor of first delivery in 10 years) if the design is started cold in Canada......I've read talk of buying into a British project....but it's a political hot-potato.....

    Also from Halifax will come "6 to 8" 98 metre Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships, designed by STX Offshore and BMT Fleet, respectively Korean and British corporations with subsidiary offices in Canada.

    In Vancouver we'll give Seaspan (changed their name from Washington Marine Group just in the nick of time) $8B for 7 ships plus perhaps some boats if there's any money left over.

    1 will be an Oceanographic Science vessel of 78 metres designed by our friends at STX
    3 will be 65 metre CCG Research vessels designed by Robert Allan LTD (a Canadian Company0
    2 will be 210 metre Military Supply Ships with design "being developed by DND" We'll guess this is the preliminary and the actual work will go out to bid eventually.
    And one 140 metre Polar Ice Breaker whose design has been kicked around for the past 25 years...who knows who will win the design contract?

    So we know for sure that a Canadian Company will design 3 out of the 28 ships......
     
  2. HReeve
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    HReeve Junior Member

    The Vancouver design office currently known as STX Marine has been owned by foreign interests for longer than I have been in the industry. But in all that time, the office has been primarily managed and staffed by Canadian Naval Architects, has been a strong local supporter of the profession and of the education of Naval Architecture. Many of the people there have been there for a long time, and have built a career there.

    The various offices that have been bought out by BMT over the years, similarly employ Canadians for the large part, and continue to operate much as they did in the past. With the exception that the staff no longer have to do the Friday lunchtime dash to the bank to cash their paycheque, worrying that if they are the last there, their cheque will bounce.

    If you have been by Van Ship in the past year, you will have seen that they have been very slow, and very much need the work.

    If foreign ownership of these businesses has allowed them to stay open, keeping Canadians employed, through the lean years, I fail to see how that is a bad thing.

    As long as the new work is being done in Canada, who cares who the corporate backers are?

    There will be a trickle down effect too, as some smaller firms (like Capilano Maritime Design and Allied Shipyard) will pick up work that larger companies like STX and Van Ship will be too busy to do. All Canadian Naval Architects will see a benefit from these contracts. It's up to us to figure out how to parley them into a long term re-generation and rejuvenation of the industry.

    And yes, the Polar Ice Breaker has been kicking around for a long time, but now there is finally the commitment to go ahead with the build.
     
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  3. Squidly-Diddly
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    Squidly-Diddly Senior Member

    32billion for "15 warships" and 6 patrol, and 8 'support'?

    how many super-carriers and nuclear missile subs in that 15 whole ships?

    Why did computers go from $5000 to $500, but "warships" went from $100m to 2billion?
     
  4. viking north
    Joined: Dec 2010
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    viking north VINLAND

    Squidly--The whole of Canada has the same population as California. On some 30 million tax paying citizens we run a country bigger than the U.S.(free health care included) It is one of the most financially stable countries in the world. Not to be unkind here but what is the financial condition of California and how many Nuclear subs and Super Carriers does the STATE of California own. I'm not trying to be a smart *** here but many of our southern friends forget what a small population we have and as such we just don't have the tax base to get into the nuclear superpower status. We need another 70 million people to become a superpower and based on our world class status with just 30 million it takes no imagination we could hold our own against most. Until then--we have hopefully good friends :)--failing that the backing of the Allied Commonwealth.
     
  5. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    Just to follow the fashion of reading between and behind the lines ..... is this Canada getting ready for the big influx of shipping trade over the North Pole as the Arctic Ice melts ?
     
  6. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    Hopefully the Canadian continental shelf extends far enough where we have juristiction. The Russians have already claimed most of it but have agreed to a world court decision. Canada and the U.S. are in discussion on east/west area territorial control. To answer your question, yes i would expect new trade routes to open up and that i suspect is the purpose of the heavy icebreaker. Wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't well armed. Looking at a map Hudson Bay extends quite far south (50th. parallel)in eastern Canada so one could see a road or rail connection there. (50th. parallel, amazingly is approx. central (north/south) England.)
     
  7. Willallison
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    Willallison Senior Member

    Does anybody else see the irony of these two statements...:confused:
     
  8. Ilan Voyager
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    Ilan Voyager Senior Member

    Nicely said...I remember to the USA citizens coming to this forum, that in Canada the health system works relatively well and nobody dies by lack of medical care like in the USA. Also no big industry of private health insurance making money on the customers.
    Canadian understood the meaning and advantages of solidarity, and I never met (and I know many at Puerto Morelos) a Canadian guy wanting the disappearance of the health system. Canada is a different society and seems to me far more christian in the good meaning of the word that I have seen while travelling in Canada and in the States.
     
  9. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    "Originally Posted by aranda1984
    .....The navy and the military was grossly neglected for years. The North is opening up, we need the navy to put some people up there.

    Peace Brothers!

    Stephen I. M."



    At first it looked ironic, but then after thinking about it - Peace is what you get when you have a 'big stick'

    The Pirates, Terrorists and 'bad people' play up a lot less if you have a few heavy weapons to call on.

    so yes, Peace Brother -
     
  10. Saildude
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    Saildude Junior Member

    Canada is facing the same problem the U.S. Coast Guard is having - how to support / keep safe the increase in ship traffic on the north coast and into the Arctic - the USCG has had to move extra people and assets into places like Pt. Barrow for the new traffic. If my memory is correct they have already had to deal with Medivac issues from ships that were at or beyond the operating range of their helicopters they have put on the North Slope Area.
     
  11. CutOnce

    CutOnce Previous Member

    Can't say as the empirical evidence supports this theory. The pirates and terrorists have traditionally found the rich and powerful the most succulent targets. Hence 9/11, the Somalian coast etc. Desperation and greed push people with nothing valuable to lose into conflict with those they envy. When life is cheap, no one fears retaliation. Even more dangerous is when religion convinces people that death will result in a better life than they have today. What penniless starving teenage religious fanatic can resist the promise of twenty one virgins and a full garden of paradise?

    The Canadian North is a very different situation. Greed and resource scarcity is pushing rich countries into the troubled situation of trying to test Canadian resolve about the North. Everyone is interested in oil, mineral and diamond wealth - but no one other than Canada seems to care about the people who have lived there longer than most Western countries have existed.

    It is fascinating watching how the Americans, Danish and Russians are trying to rationalize how elbowing their way into the Canadian North is not illegal. The territory has only become interesting after the resources and wealth under the ice was noticed.

    --
    CutOnce
     
  12. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    Thats been going on for decades. Would probably save the Canadians a few billion and make for good neighbor relations if the next American President made a trip to Canada and pledged to respect Canadian Sovereignty of northern waters.
     
  13. Squidly-Diddly
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    Squidly-Diddly Senior Member

    How much of Canada's build up is to support US led misadventures in MidEast?

    I know it really gets to Canadians when they are seen as just an appendage of the USA, but their leaders are certainly "Neo Cons", even if they did make some show about pulling out of Iraq or Afghanistan(or have they pulled out?).
     
  14. Tad
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    Tad Boat Designer


  15. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

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