The Canadian Coast Guard is testing out its new icebreaker and is using Collingwood as a base while the ship works in Georgian Bay.
Capt. Travis Borchuk and his crew of 18 are finishing a month-long stint aboard the new-to-Canada vessel, the CCGS Judy LaMarsh, and have been given the mission of evaluating and reporting on her performance on the icy waters of the Great Lakes.
“This vessel is going to be working a majority of its time ... on the Great Lakes, so we needed confirmation of how it would work with our existing assets and how it would work in these conditions where it’s going to spend a good deal of its time,” said Borchuk. “This has been a very light ice year, so what we’ve been doing is actually intentionally going into areas that have ice that we can work and test the vessel to its capabilities without disturbing ice users as much as possible.”
Formerly named the Mangystau-2, the ship was built in 2010 in Romania and used as a charter vessel contracted out for other work. It was owned and operated by Caspian Offshore Construction in Kazakhstan, where it worked in the Caspian Sea. Since then, the Canadian Coast Guard has put in many hours to convert the ship to meet Canadian regulations, and perform regular maintenance.
Borchuk said the ship was made for icebreaking and towing barges. While the coast guard doesn’t need to tow barges, icebreaking is a special task requiring unique construction. It’s not usually something a ship can be retrofitted to do.
“Icebreaking is very, very rigorous on machinery, and actually a complex operation as far as navigating and operating the vessel is concerned,” said Borchuk. “Ice can be unpredictable and quite challenging. The conditions can vary even just 100 metres out from one another ... so our bridge team and our engine room teams have all been really going through the vessel, all the unique and complex systems and finding all of the peculiarities of it and how to operate as effectively as possible.”
The crew had the CCGS Judy LaMarsh on an exercise in the North Channel earlier this month with the CCGS Samuel Risley simulating working with escorting a commercial vessel. After that, the ship was in Sault Ste. Marie working in the area on joint operations with the U.S. Coast Guard to help with spring icebreaking. The ship has been in Georgian Bay since Sunday night, and went to Midland on Monday for icebreaking.
“Icebreaking is a rather crucial service as it allows industry to continue and fuels the economy of not just Canada and the Great Lakes, but through our binational agreement with the U.S. Coast Guard,” said Borchuk, noting the coast guard will sometimes escort vessels to make sure they get safely through the water in the winter. “We also manage flooding in the rivers.”
It’s unique for a coast guard icebreaker to harbour in Collingwood because of limited clearance, but the CCGS Judy LaMarsh is a wider boat that has a more shallow draft than other icebreakers, allowing it to navigate in Collingwood’s harbour a little easier. The shallow draft, said Borchuk, was one of the appeals of this ship.
The ship’s crane will be replaced during conversion work with a 12.5-tonne crane, allowing the crew to service navigational buoys. Borchuk said it will also have space to accommodate other government programs. For example, a science team can join the coast guard ship and use one of the multi-purpose spaces for a lab while the ship is working in the Great Lakes.
According to the federal government, the CCGS Judy LaMarsh will perform icebreaking duties in the winter and maintain nagivational buoys in the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence, and Atlantic regions. It can be used for search and rescue and other emergency response operations when needed.
The government announced the ship’s renaming in October 2022, after Judy LaMarsh, an Order of Canada appointee and one of the first women to serve as a federal cabinet minister. LaMarsh was part of the team that developed medicare and the Canada Pension Plan. She also helped establish the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada.
The CCGS Judy LaMarsh will be in Collingwood for a couple of more days. Members of the public are welcome to look at the ship from Millennium Park, but the coast guard is not offering tours or allowing the public to board the ship at this time.
