Vancouver Shipyards (District of North Vancouver)

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Vancouver Shipyards (VSY) is a shipbuilding and ship repair facilities owned by Seaspan Marine Corporation, a company which also owns Seaspan Marine (barging/towing/shipdocking and escort tugs and barges), Marine Petrobulk (ship refuelling), Vancouver Drydock, Victoria Shipyards and Seaspan Ferries Corporation.

www.seaspan.com/vanship/

History

Vancouver Shipyards was founded in 1902 at the foot of Denman Street in Vancouver, then was acquired by Vancouver Tug Boat Company in 1954. The shipyard was moved to its present site in 1969 after Dillingham Corporation purchased the two companies. Seaspan Marine Corporation was formed the following year with the merger of Dillingham and Genstar Ltd, then in 1996 Seaspan and its subsidiaries was purchased by current owner Dennis Washington.

Over the years VSY has built numerous barges, tugs and ferries, and has also modernized several of the BC Ferries fleet--hull lengthening, adding extra car ramps and decks, repowering with new engines. For a complete list of ships built, see shipbuildinghistory.com/history/canada/vancouver.htm

The Future

In October 2011, Seaspan was awarded an $8 Billion contract to build the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) program's non-combat vessels. Under this contract, VSY will build for Canadian Coast Guard 3 offshore fisheries science vessels (OFSVs) (construction to begin fall 2014 with delivery of first vessel in 2016), to be followed by 1 offshore oceanographic science vessel (OOSV) in 2016-17 and the polar icebreaker CCGS John G. Diefenbaker in 2018. VSY will also build 2 Queenston Class Joint Supply Ships (JSS) for Royal Canadian Navy (HMCS Queenston and HMCS Chateauguay), construction of which will begin in late 2016 with delivery in 2017-18. The JSS is based on the Berlin-class replenishment ships of the Deutsche Marine. A third JSS may be ordered in future.

VSY was awarded an additional $3.3 billion contract in October 2013 for construction of up to 10 additional ships for Canadian Coast Guard. This contract calls for 5 medium endurance multi-task vessels (MEMTVs) for servicing navigational aids, and 5 offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) for fisheries protection, search and rescue, and environmental response. These vessels will be approximately 65 and 75 metres in length, respectively.

Hull and superstructure construction and assembly, representing about 80% of the work, will be done at VSY, with the final outfitting to be done at Victoria Shipyards. About $200 million worth of new infrastructure will be built here before construction of the new vessels begins in 2014. This modernization program involves 6 new buildings, a fitting out pier, and an 86-metre tall, 300-tonne gantry crane. see www.seaspan.com/shipyards/modernization.php and www.seaspanfornsps.com/?page_id=295 to see the new facilities. Employment will rise from about 200 currently to over 1000 once construction starts on the larger ships.

VSY continues to build chip barges for Seaspan and undertakes ship repair for commercial customers, and is pursuing contracts for building new ferries for the BC Ferry Corporation fleet modernization program.