By Garry Noble, 12 March 2022
When the news release was published in September 2019 that the Navy would acquire 5 connectors, did anyone think it would be 26 months before the first one got wet. At last the Canadian mexeflotes are about to be delivered, accepted and training to commence shortly. I read about the recent progress on CNR Broadsides and studied the NAC briefing note in detail. However I have not been able to find some details. Are the pontoons built by Navamar the same size (length, width, height and weight) as 20 foot containers? This may have been a limitation of the original mexeflotes as they are not compatible with the handling equipment and facilities for sea containers. In the one photo of the acceptance tests the pontoons appeared to have the same corners for twistlocks as containers? Also the Arctic Offshore Patrol ships can carry 6 standard height containers, would the height of the connector modules allow an AOPS to carry a complete ship-to-shore connector? Are the ship-to-shore connectors power by a pair of 150 hp Thrustmaster azimuthing thrusters like the Mexeflote? Does anyone know? Thanks for answering my questions.
3 thoughts on “Ship-to-Shore Connectors”
For what it’s worth, this Navamar page states “The modular pontoon barges are assembled in the water with the flexibility to load anything from vehicles to sea containers [emphasis added] of supplies, and subsequently shuttle these to shore.”
Garry the statement of requirements say that the connector sections have to be no larger than a foot print of a standard ISO container and are secured to the deck with standard TEU locks. As well they have to be able to take 20ft ISO container again secured by the same locks. These connectors are for the JSS not the AOPS, although I would imagine they could be used on AOPS. Just some other information that the max weight used on a connector for a vehicle is 24 tons which is the weight of a TEU handler. For propulsion it is a diesel engine with thrusters, it has to be as there is no visible rudder.
Further information acquired they are thrustmaster azimuthing thrusters.