Heddle Shipyards fully booked for the winter

Winter work is keeping Ontario shipyards busy. [Photp: Heddle Shipyards]

All three of Canadian shipbuilder Heddle Shipyards’ Ontario Shipyards are fully booked for the 2022 winter works season.

The company says that, despite a new wave of pandemic restrictions and supply chain challenges, it continues to forge ahead with another busy winter, making “excellent progress” at the Port Weller Dry Docks on the CCGS Amundsen Vessel Life Extension and the drydocking and refit of a Seaway max cargo vessel.

“This has been a challenging year for everyone, and the ship repair and construction industries are no different,” said Director of Engineering and Project Management Alicia Nash, “but our people have shown a tremendous amount of resiliency and commitment to get the work done on schedule.”

At the Hamilton Shipyard, says the company, “hardly a foot of dry dock or quayside space is unoccupied.” The yard’s three floating dry docks are fully booked, with seven dry dockings on the schedule and nine alongside projects are currently underway. Inside the fabrication shop, the fabrication team is preparing for the keel laying of the Simcoe Island II cable ferry newbuild.

“We have a great mix of projects underway,” said Ted Kirkpatrick, director of business development, “from regular five-year surveys and alongside steelwork to new construction and vessel recycling, there is not much we aren’t doing right now.”

In Thunder Bay, reports Heddle, the team from the newly acquired Fabmar Metals is full steam ahead with several winter projects. The MS Chi-Cheemaun is in the final stages of completion, and several alongside steel renewal and mechanical projects are underway at the Thunder Bay Shipyard and Keefer Terminal.