USCGC ''Spar'' (WLB-206) is a

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender home-ported in

Duluth , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

. The ship maintains

aids to navigation Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

in the

Twin Ports The Duluth MN-WI Metropolitan Area, commonly called the Twin Ports, is a small metropolitan area centered around the cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. The Twin Ports are located at the western part of Lake Superior (the west ...

and

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five la ...

Construction

The

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in B ...

for ''Spar'' was laid on December 15, 1999 at Marinette Marine Corporation in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. ''Spar'' was launched on August 12, 2000. She was christened by US Attorney General Janet Reno. Also speaking at her launch ceremony was US Senator Herb Kohl, and US Coast Guard Vice Admiral Timothy Josiah. She was the sixth of the fourteen Juniper-class ships launched. Her hull is constructed of welded steel plates. She is long and has a beam of . She is capable of maintaining a sustained speed of 15 knots. The ship has thirteen diesel fuel tanks capable of holding 74,498 gallons. ''Spar'' has an unrefueled range of 6,000 miles at 12 knots. ''Spar'' has a single variable-pitch propeller that is powered by two

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larva, larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterfly, butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawfly ...

3608 Diesel engines, each with an indicated 3,100 shp. There are two electric maneuvering thrusters, the bow thruster producing 460 hp and the stern thruster producing 550 hp. The thrusters act as part of a dynamic positioning system that is capable of maintaining the ship within five meters of a fixed position on the sea in winds up to 30 knots and seas up to . This allows the crew to work on buoys in difficult weather conditions. The ship's crane extends to and can lift onto her buoy deck, which is 2,875 square feet in area. ''Spar'' is armed with two 50-caliber machine guns and a variety of small arms for boarding operations. The cutter is named after the former U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserves, also known as

SPARS The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS (SPARS was the acronym for "Semper Paratus—Always Ready"), was the women's branch of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. It was established by the United States ...

from the Latin and English translations of the Coast Guard Motto: ''Semper Paratus; Always Ready!'' She is the second Coast Guard ship of this name. The first USCGC ''Spar'' (WLB-403) was launched in 1943.

Operational history

After launch and sea trials, ''Spar'' sailed from Marinette, Wisconsin to Kodiak, Alaska from March to June 2001. She was commissioned later that year on August 3. ''Spar's'' primary mission is to maintain aids to navigation. In 2007, her area of responsibility extended from Kodiak in the east to Attu in the western Aleutians and north into the Bering Sea, including the

Pribilof Islands The Pribilof Islands (formerly the Northern Fur Seal Islands; ale, Amiq, russian: Острова Прибылова, Ostrova Pribylova) are a group of four volcanic islands off the coast of mainland Alaska, in the Bering Sea, about north of ...

. As of 2019, this area included 148 fixed and floating aids to navigation. ''Spar'' also supports a number of other Coast Guard missions including search and rescue, fisheries law enforcement, light icebreaking, and oil spill response. She cooperates with

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

to maintain weather buoys in her area of responsibility and to collect hydrographic data to update charts. In her search and rescue function, ''Spar'' towed the disabled fishing vessel ''Equinox'' to Kodiak in 2008. The ship was dispatched to the disabled fishing vessel ''Lady Gudny'' in January 2017. ''Spar'' was able to secure a tow line on the fishing boat, but it broke in the heavy seas and high winds. The broken tow line wrapped around ''Spar's'' propeller, disabling the ship. She was towed back to Kodiak by a commercial tugboat. In 2012 ''Spar'' was part of a large Coast Guard response to the drifting Kulluk drilling platform. During the summer of 2013 Spar participated in the Coast Guard's Arctic Shield 2013 program to test and exercise the ability to operate in Arctic waters. Spar successfully deployed her Vessel of Opportunity Skimming System (VOSS) to practice oil spill recovery. The ship earned the

special operations service ribbon The Special Operations Service Ribbon is a service award of the United States Coast Guard which was first created 1 July 1987 by order of Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Paul A. Yost Jr. The award is authorized for certain acts of non-comb ...

for this deployment. In 2021 USCGC ''Alder'' and ''Spar'' switched home ports. After undergoing a refit in

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, she sailed for her new home port arriving in Duluth on March 30, 2022.

Accomplishments

In 2012, ''Spar'' was adopted as honorary ship of the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak, the only known cutter to have received such a title. As part of the Coast Guard's community outreach program, ''Spar'' made annual “Santa to the Villages” trips to remote communities on Kodiak Island. Village elders later credited this relationship for trust in the federal government’s response when the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Kulluk ran aground on Tribal land. In 2013, ''Spar’s'' law enforcement boardings of gold dredge vessels around Nome carried the Coast Guard’s mission to a national audience through the reality television series

Bering Sea Gold ''Bering Sea Gold'' (also known as ''Gold Divers'' in the UK) is a reality television series set in Nome, Alaska, on Norton Sound, that airs on Discovery Channel. It is from the creators of the ''Deadliest Catch'' reality TV show. The show is di ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spar (WLB-206) Ships of the United States Coast Guard Juniper-class seagoing buoy tenders 2000 ships Ships built by Marinette Marine