The Bay Class Lifeboat is a

Robert Allan Ltd. Robert Allan Ltd. is Canada's oldest privately owned Consulting firm, consulting Naval architecture, Naval Architectural firm, established in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1930. Their experience includes designs for vessels of almost all types ...

modification of the shorter

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

Severn-class lifeboat The Severn class is the largest lifeboat operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The class, which is long, was introduced in to service in 1996. It is named after the River Severn, the longest river in Great Britain. The li ...

to meet the needs of the

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; french: links=no, Garde côtière canadienne, GCC) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues in ...

for off-shore

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

operations in severe conditions. They are referred to as the Bay class as each one is named after a Canadian bay.

Programme

In 2015, the Canadian Coast Guard announced a request for proposals (RFP) to build up to ten new search and rescue lifeboats as part of Canada's National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. The total has now been increased to 20, with Hike Metal Products of

Wheatley, Ontario Wheatley is a community in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, within the municipality of Chatham-Kent. It lies about east of Leamington. Nearby parks include Two Creeks Conservation Area, which has 15 km of hiking and bicycling paths, Kopegaron ...

and Chantier Naval Forillon of

Gaspé, Quebec Gaspé is a city at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of eastern Quebec in Canada. Gaspé is located about northeast of Quebec City, and east of Rimouski. As of the 2021 Canadian Census, the city h ...

equally building 10 each. The vessels are intended to replace the Coast Guard's ten ''Arun''-class lifeboats, which averaged 18 years of service at the time of the RFP. The new design is the work of Canadian nautical architectural firm

and is a modification of the Severn-class lifeboat, making the vessels more suited to the extreme weather conditions that can be found off

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

. Capable of , the new vessels will be faster than the earlier 18.5kt ''Arun''-class vessels. They are capable of operating in waves, and in wind conditions at 12 on the Beaufort scale. The vessels' hulls will be aluminum, not FRC (fibre reinforced composite), as with the original Severn design.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = http://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/industry-news/new-robert-allan-lifeboats , title = New Robert Allan lifeboats , publisher = Maritime Journal , author = , date = 2013-07-15 , page = , location = , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20131029060701/http://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/industry-news/new-robert-allan-lifeboats , archivedate = 2013-10-29 , accessdate = 2015-07-22 , url-status = live , quote = {{cite news , url = http://www.marinelink.com/news/canadian-design-robert356600.aspx , title = Robert Allan Design New Canadian Coast Guard SAR Lifeboats , publisher = Marine Link , author = , date = 2013-07-15 , page = , location = , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150722072403/http://www.marinelink.com/news/canadian-design-robert356600.aspx , archivedate = 2015-07-22 , url-status = live , quote = The new Canadian design is larger with a greater range than the RNLI vessel and has been specifically designed to handle the worst weather encountered year around in the waters off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The new design is also for construction in aluminium rather than FRP as are the Severn Class. {{cite news , url = http://www.marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=8316:canada-issues-rfp-for-sar-lifeboats&Itemid=231 , title = Canada issues RFP for SAR lifeboats , publisher = Marine Log , author = , date = 2014-11-26 , page = , location = , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150722071604/http://www.marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=8316:canada-issues-rfp-for-sar-lifeboats&Itemid=231 , archivedate = 2015-07-22 , accessdate = 2015-07-22 , url-status = live , quote = Motor lifeboats of the Canadian Coast Guard