An unusual move played out in Vancouver Harbour on Friday, 13 February, as Seaspan shifted its floating drydock Seaspan Careen from near Burrard Pier and loaded it onto the semi-submersible heavy-lift ship GPO Emerald. The drydock is scheduled to depart Vancouver Harbour on 15 February for a voyage to Indonesia expected to take about a month.
In Indonesia, Seaspan Careen is set to undergo repairs and upgrades at a specialized shipyard so it can accommodate the heavy polar icebreaker being built at the shipyard. Work on the $3.2 billion vessel is expected to continue for several years. Seaspan spokesperson Abigail Saxton said the upgrade is being advanced now so the dock is ready ahead of launching the heavy polar icebreaker in a couple of years.
Much of the scope is expected to focus on replacing and reinforcing the bottom of Seaspan Careen so it can lift bigger and heavier ships. Saxton said the work is also expected to extend the life of the 45-year-old drydock by 20 to 30 years. The drydock is expected to return to Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards this summer, while the two other drydocks continue handling repair and maintenance work.
The drydock measures 140 m in length and has a lifting capacity of up to 30,000 tonnes. It has supported previous launches at Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards, including the Royal Canadian Navy’s first joint support ship HMCS Protecteur and the offshore oceanographic science vessel CCGS Naalak Nappaaluk, delivered to the Canadian Coast Guard in November.
At Vancouver Drydock, Seaspan Careen is one of three floating drydocks used to lift barges, cruise ships, ferries, coast guard vessels, and smaller boats such as the SeaBus out of the water for repairs. A floating drydock submerges its deck by filling ballast tanks with seawater, tugboats position a vessel above the deck, and the dock then rises as ballast water is pumped out, lifting the vessel clear for maintenance.
The transport vessel GPO Emerald is one of four identical semi-submersible heavy-lift ships operated by GPO Heavylift of Norway, a company that specializes in the international shipment of heavy equipment such as offshore drilling rigs.
