Proposed new boat for Delta Lifeboat Station

Roberts Bank Lifeboat Station

Group is 'Ready' to put new boat into service

First it must get 38-foot craft shipped from Scotland

Jessica Kerr, The Delta Optimist

Published: Wednesday, February 06, 2008

They bought the boat; now the Roberts Bank Delta Lifeboat Society just needs to get it to Delta.

The society recently purchased a replacement for the White Rose of Yorkshire, the 34-year-old boat the society has been using for the past nine years.
The new fast response craft, the Ready, could be in service as early as late spring, said Chris Scurr, media relations officer with society. However, the group needs to find a way to get it to Roberts Bank from its current home in Invergordon, Scotland.

"The Ready, after exhaustive expert research, was found to be a perfect replacement for our current lifeboat," Scurr said. "She is a high-speed response vessel that has several advantages over the old life boat."
The Ready is powered by two 400-horsepower diesel engines that drive twin water jets for propulsion.

"This allows for our professionally trained volunteer crew members to arrive on scene at any marine disaster in our operations arena within minutes of receiving the call from the rescue centre in Victoria," he said.
The new lifeboat is a 38-foot, all-weather, self-righting, inflatable-style rescue craft with a rigid hull and cabin.

The Ready was built in 2000 and re-engined recently. The vessel previously served in the United Kingdom for Trinity House, Great Britain's pilotage institution. A company that had hoped to use it to transport crews to the North Sea Oil and Gas rigs recently purchased the Ready. However, when the company did not receive the contract, the vessel was put up for sale.

Paul Foster, coxswain with the society, traveled to Invergordon in mid-January to test the Ready on the open sea. With the boat passing the test, he went ahead and made the purchase.

"Our challenge now is to find an interested donor who is willing and able to transport the vessel from Invergordon or a convenient British port and bring her to North America," Scurr said.

Once the society receives the boat, it will be looking to raise about $50,000 to paint it and upgrade its equipment to bring it up to the Canadian Coast Guard and Transport Canada standards.

"As we are completely reliant on business and community funding for our free services, we would like to put out a challenge to the corporations and the people of Delta to make worthwhile donations for this worthy cause," Scurr said.
He added the society is also looking for volunteer members to serve on the crew or assist with on-shore support during rescue operations.
For more information or to make a donation, call Paul Rasmussen at 604-943-0629.


© The Delta Optimist 2008

Life saverGreat big sea poses a costly dilemma
By Kristine Thiessen - South Delta Leader - February 15, 2008
Chris Scurr wears a pager 24/7.
He's been paged in the middle of the night from the warmth of his bed to the chill of a howling sea to help boaters in distress-and he's a volunteer.
 Scurr is one of 10 crew members with the Roberts Bank Lifeboat Station Society, a non-profit organization. The trained volunteers are ever-ready to come to the aid of sea-goers in trouble on the Strait of Georgia.
 Unfortunately, their current boat isn't. They've used the 34-year-old White Rose of Yorkshire for the past nine years, and while she's in good condition, she's not suitable for the shallow coast of Roberts Bank nor has the speed needed to quickly respond to emergencies.
 After over a year of searching, the society found the perfect replacement. The Ready is a high-speed, self-righting response vessel with a shallow hull, two 400-horsepower diesel engines and twin waterjets.
 The vessel, built in 1995, can go over 30 knots (the Rose's top speed is about 12) and is proven trustworthy-others of it's kind, a Halmatic Pacific, have seen US Coast Guard service, says Scurr.
 The Ready was a deal he says, noting that similar vessels can cost between one and seven million dollars. It was up for quick sale by a company that lost a contract and no longer needed the boat.
 The problem? The non-profit society doesn't have the money needed to get it from its current location in Invergordon, Scotland, to South Delta.
“It could cost up to $40,000 to transport,” explains Scurr.
 Once it does get here, they need to fundraise another $50,000 to upgrade The Ready to Canadian Coast Guard standards.
 The society has launched the Admiral Fundraising Campaign, and hope to have enough money for transport by late spring.
While they could sell the Rose, “a good, solid, all-weather boat,” for $50,000 to $60,000, says Scurr, they don't want to be without a rescue vessel while The Ready is in Scotland.
 The area the lifeboat station society covers “can be some of the roughest waters in the whole region,” he says.
“We cover the southern Strait of Georgia, from Sand Heads across to the eastern Gulf Islands down to Point Roberts from the port here,” where their berth is sponsored by the container company Sea Span International.
And those rough waters are busy with ferries, shipping containers, pleasure boaters and fishing vessels.
 So far, the Rose's lack of speed has not been a problem, but Scurr says their team might receives less calls because it's known their boat is slow.
To make a donation or volunteer, visit http://www.robertsbanklifeboat.ca or call Paul Rasmussen at 604-943-0629.
 Homeward bound-Save a few upgrades, The Ready (similar to the boat shown here) is ready to serve Roberts Bank Lifeboat Station Society in Tsawwassen. The only problem? The vessel is in Scotland. Contributed photo
kthiessen@southdeltaleader.com




Unit 9 rescue to get new lifeboat
Small group acquires almost-new vessel from United Kingdom
Brian Lewis, The Province Published: Sunday, February 17, 2008

 Even if you only take a B.C.Ferries sailing on the Tsaw-wassen-Swartz Bay run occasionally, you know that the open waters between the Lower Mainland and the Gulf Islands are often dotted with boats and ships of all shapes and sizes.
Add to this eclectic fleet the strong ocean currents in Georgia Strait, an equally strong Fraser River outflow, powerful westerly winds, treacherous shoals and sandbars and you have the raison d'etre for the voluntary Roberts Bank Lifeboat Society.
 Officially, the small group is known as Unit 9 -- Robert Banks -- of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary (Pacific). Its primary purpose is to help all of us have a safer time on the water.
But Unit 9, whose lifeboat "station" is a construction trailer amid the massive container cranes, huge freighters, trucks and tugboats at Deltaport, is also unique.
 Because its patrol area contains extremely high marine traffic and very nasty winds, Unit 9's rescue vessel is much larger than most on the coast, where it's also aligned with the Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria.
"Our location is really the nexus of a lot of marine activity, and that's why a few years ago it was recognized that we had to establish a full lifeboat station here," explains Robin Gardner, president of the Roberts Bank Lifeboat Society (www.robertsbanklifeboat.ca).
 That's also why the Roberts Bank crew has been using a U.K.-designed-and-built all-weather, self-righting 131/2-metre lifeboat, the White Rose of Yorkshire, for the past nine years.
 It's the kind of vessel made famous by the U.K.'s legendary Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the 184-year-old charity organization that operates hundreds of lifeboat stations responsible for saving many thousands of lives over the years in the U.K's turbulent seas.
 The 34-year-old White Rose of Yorkshire was bought by the Roberts Bank Lifeboat Society in 1999 after 25 years' service in the U.K., where it was directly responsible for saving 60 lives.
"But she's getting old now and huffs and puffs at her top speed of
15 knots," Gardner adds.
 Replacing the vessel, which has also participated in many local rescues, would have cost close to $1 million.
 Then the society got lucky.
 It found a near-new, 111/2-m all-weather, self-righting lifeboat in the U.K. It has recently been refurbished and was up for sale because its owner lost a contract to transport workers to and from oil rigs in the North Sea.
 The vessel, aptly named Ready, is powered by twin 400-horsepower Cummins diesel engines and is propelled by jet drive to a top speed of 35 knots, which is more than twice as fast as the old boat.
 It also draws just half a metre of water compared with 1.8 m for the White Rose, so the Ready will be much more effective working near shoals and sandbars.
  Now that U.K. sea trials by a society member have been successfully completed and the boat has been bought, the society is looking for a shipping line to bring the Ready to its new home.
 And once she's been modified to meet Canadian Coast Guard standards, the Ready will be ready for search-and-rescue duties in the spring.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

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