Local Coast Guard welcomes back the Siyay hovercraft
Posted May 13, 2016 7:07 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND (NEWS 1130) – The warm weather means many of us are expected out on the water this weekend.
This boating season, local Coast Guard crews have a few more tools to help keep you safe.
The re-opening of the Kitsilano Coast Guard Base allows crews at Richmond’s Sea Island to increase the number of standard patrols. More importantly, those crews will soon be doing those patrols in the trusted Siyay hovercraft once again.
“These particular vessels spend a lot of time in the surf zone and operating over sand. And all of these things are hard on anything that can corrode,” says Brian Wootton with the Coast Guard.
The 18-year-old craft was just welcomed back to Sea Island after more than a year away for life-extending maintenance.
“At this stage of her life, one of the key issues was her hull. In particular, a main engine overhaul including the engine beds have been subject to some pretty significant wear,” says Wootton.
“A unique part of the Siyay is her ability to go fully-amphibious. The main bag and flexible skirts that allow her to be amphibious, they were renewed. Your propulsion controls, radio package, navigator’s equipment — all of this has been modernized.”‘
The multi-million-dollar overhaul includes a shiny new coat of paint and will extend the 28-metre hovercraft’s life by another 20 years.
The Siyay is at Sea Island right now, as crews there put it through a battery of tests before she can return to active service. That should come in around a month.
At that point, it will team up with the brand-new Moytel, which has only been in service for just over a year and will allow the Coast Guard to retire the smaller, 32-year-old Penac — which had been filling the void during the Siyay’s retrofit.
