The Canadian Coast Guard officially welcomed CCGS Baie des Chaleurs into its fleet at the Lifeboat Station in Clark’s Harbour, Nova Scotia, on July 30, 2025.
CCGS Baie des Chaleurs is one of 20 new search‑and‑rescue lifeboats being delivered under Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy.
The vessel is designed, equipped and crewed to respond to incidents at sea up to 100 nautical miles from shore, maintain a maximum 30‑minute state‑of‑readiness, and to respond immediately upon receiving an alert.
As of now, 13 Bay‑class lifeboats have been delivered to Coast Guard stations on Canada’s Atlantic coast.
The vessel has a top speed of up to 25 knots and a crew complement of four. It will operate along the Atlantic coast until the Grand Passage Lifeboat Station and wharf are complete, expected in 2027.
Its eventual home port will be at the new facility serving Grand Passage, Nova Scotia, replacing the Westport location.
Each Canadian Coast Guard search‑and‑rescue lifeboat is named after a Canadian bay.
According to the Canadian Coast Guard, it responds annually to over 6,500 calls for marine assistance, typically coordinating 18 search‑and‑rescue incidents per day, assisting 47 people and saving 13 lives.
The Bay‑class lifeboat project is part of the Canadian Coast Guard’s fleet renewal under the National Shipbuilding Strategy. The Bay‑class design, developed by naval architecture firm Robert Allan Ltd and built by Chantier Naval Forillon and Hike Metal Products, is an enhanced variation of the UK RNLI Severn‑class lifeboat.
These vessels are built to Lloyd’s Register Special Service Craft rules, aluminium‑hulled, self‑righting and capable of withstanding extreme Atlantic conditions, including 12‑metre seas and Beaufort Force 12 winds.
As of mid‑2025, Canada has taken delivery of up to 20 such vessels, with construction to continue through 2025 and deployment across both Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
The Canadian Coast Guard is a federal special operating agency under Fisheries and Oceans Canada. It is responsible for marine safety, search and rescue services, environmental response, icebreaking, aids to navigation and marine communications and traffic services. The Coast Guard operates a mixed fleet of vessels and aircraft, and handles over 6,500 marine assistance requests annually.