The Canadian Coast Guard has been keeping sailors safe off the coast of Canada for 60 years, and to mark the occasion, the base was opened to the public on Saturday.
The Coast Guard’s inaugural day also served as the official welcome to the West Coast service for the new refit buoy CCGS Sir Wilfred Grenfell, with members of the public welcomed aboard for tours as one of many organized activities for the day.
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome everyone to Coast Guard Day in Victoria,” said Commissioner Mario Pelletier aboard the Grenfell. “Today is one more occasion to celebrate in a year full of celebrations marking 60 years of service to Canadians by the Canadian Coast Guard.
Pelletier said an open house event was chosen to mark the milestone both to help shed light on the work the traditionally humble organization is doing and as a chance to help boost recruitment.
Information booths, Coast Guard personnel and equipment from all areas of the organization’s work were on display at the base, ranging from helicopters to small powerboats to the CCGS Moytel hovercraft. based in Grenfell and Vancouver. The organization’s environmental spill response work and remote communications and radar stations were also on display.
When they weren’t touring the ships, enthusiastic visitors were also able to see the Coast Guard in action with man overboard demonstrations.
The star of Saturday’s event, Grenfell, will now be based on the west coast after a $17.3million refit. The 67.68 meter vessel was originally built in 1985 as an offshore supply vessel before being converted for search and rescue duties with the Coast Guard on the East Coast in 1987.
While she will continue to perform search and rescue, patrol and fisheries enforcement duties as required, the vessel’s main job will be to maintain and replace navigational buoys and resupply distant headlights.
“It’s an exciting day for us because it’s been a long time coming. Western Region has been working on this ship for about two years,” said Austin Zin, Sir Wilfred Grenfell’s chief officer. “The Grenfell replaces the CCGS Bartlett… the Grenfell has a bit more lifting and carrying capacity. It’s just a bigger, better platform to let us do more work faster and safer. »
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