Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDVs)

[Underway]

In the commercial coastal trade on the westcoast they say : "if you haven't hit something, you haven't been around enough". I can't fathom a MCDV needing to do a cold move unless there is a propulsion problem already. They are not big vessels and flashing them up to do a short hop is not a significant event. Plus it gives the deck officer and the CO time on the wheel which is where you learn your ship handing.

We do jetty dancing all the time. The cold move is easy, as you don't need to get much more than line handlers and the officer of the day to do it. CO isn't even onboard half the time. Doing a hot move requires too many people involved and is a hassle.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Well Colin most of the CCG ships you talk about have bow thrusters, MCDV's don't and the frigates don't. If the tugs are available I see no issue taking them. Just for the record we don't always take tugs either. The picture above is several ships that came back from a pretty intensive sea training two weeks and propulsion is up. Why are they taking them? most likely because its pretty tight in the camber and they probably want to secure and get home and using tugs speeds things up.

For MCDV's we usually do a cold move because we may have systems down for maintenance , may have to move to another jetty because of a high priority ship coming in or as simple as to facilitate crane work to remove payloads etc. There are literally dozens of reasons why we do cold moves when we don't want to do a lengthy flash up for a simple move.

So no offense stop comparing us to the CCG.

Bow thrusters pah! None on the R Class and this baby had only direct drive diesels, quickly separated the men from the boys in terms of ship handling, air start so you only had so many gear changes....

Plus if you put bigger guns and stuff on them it would so less confusing (sorry couldn't resist)

 

[Stoker]

Bow thrusters pah! None on the R Class and this baby had only direct drive diesels, quickly separated the men from the boys in terms of ship handling, air start so you only had so many gear changes....

Plus if you put bigger guns and stuff on them it would so less confusing (sorry couldn't resist)

Not talking about the R Class but you certainly were talking about the 1100 class.....I get it you guys are a bunch of ship handling wizards.....

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

There are many reasons to cold move as opposed to hot moving. One of them is availability of a command qualified officer and a CERA on board, other ones are time and available personnel considerations. There is also the fact, Colin, that in the RCN, unlike the Coast Guard, we have our own tugs present in harbour and dedicated to nothing else than service of the fleet. Unlike the CCG, we don't have to hire outside tug companies. Finally, our hulls are generally not of the type you can bounce into things, again unlike yours, and it comes down to "why take chances with a billion dollars asset if you can avoid problems by spending a few thousand dollars", especially for the subs and frigates.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I so get it for the bigger ships, but for the MCDV's it seems that for most times like a good chance to practice ship handling and give the up and coming Deck Officers a chance to learn ship handling.

 

[MARS]

I so get it for the bigger ships, but for the MCDV's it seems that for most times like a good chance to practice ship handling and give the up and coming Deck Officers a chance to learn ship handling.

It absolutely is all that, unless its a day where half the ships company is at the range, or the ENTIRE ships company is on post deployment leave and you are cold moving someone else's ship, or..and this my favorite...you get a call saying you need to move jetties in the next 60 min because QHM decided a week ago they needed NB clear for king post trials for a FFG but no one informed the MM that needed to move,, because why include SHADs in those meetings??

Fucking clowns.

Its not like a CO wakes up one morning and says I'm going to do some jetty bashing for watchleeper PD today. i mean, I did wake up feeling like that often but aside from the fact that something like that requires a navigation and seamanship plan that isn't thrown together at the last minute, a ship alongside has dozens of things scheduled that day - maintenance. Trg, leave, storing ship, etc that preclude closing everyone up to get underway. And try radiating on a day when you aren't scheduled to be radiating ,surrounded by frigates with people aloft or doing crane work or whatever. Not gonna happen. He'll even if you were a FFG CO, you would be hard pressed to have that kind of juice.

Thanks to Stoker for correcting me - not a cold move in the pic. I though I was looking at a 3rd sub flying, indicating the CO was ashore, but my tired eyes on my tiny phone now see it is the Desig flag. Although I would have thought her call sign would have still been hoisted until she had a line on the jetty, but then again its been a while since I looked at the Manual of Ceremony for HMC Ships

 

[Colin Parkinson]

West Coastal wise there is a pecking order in who gets to strut their stuff in this sort of order:

Tugboaters (with levels as well)
Ship Pilots
CCG buoy tenders
Ferry Captains
CCG SAR boats
Navy vessels
.
.
.
.Recreational boaters and way down the list "rag hangers"

To be fair to the Navy, they get no credit from the coastal crowd for open ocean RAS underway as few non-navy people get to see it and understand how difficult it is. Most of what the Coastal crowd sees is the Navy training vessels often making mistakes due to the fact that people are learning

 

[Underway]

To be fair to the Navy, they get no credit from the coastal crowd for open ocean RAS underway as few non-navy people get to see it and understand how difficult it is. Most of what the Coastal crowd sees is the Navy training vessels often making mistakes due to the fact that people are learning

Yes, the Orca's are a terror everywhere between Rocky Point and Cambell River. Look out, new ship drivers coming through!

 

[dimsum]

Yes, the Orca's are a terror everywhere between Rocky Point and Cambell River. Look out, new ship drivers coming through!

I'm surprised no one has drawn an L or N plate in the back.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

This is the correct answer which I can confirm based on the combination of flags that are flying.

So the exhaust in the pic is not from the MCDV?

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Thanks to Stoker for correcting me - not a cold move in the pic. I though I was looking at a 3rd sub flying, indicating the CO was ashore, but my tired eyes on my tiny phone now see it is the Desig flag.

Answered on the next page, I should have hit "pause".

 

[FSTO]

So the exhaust in the pic is not from the MCDV?

That will be for hotel (keeping the lights on) services during the cold move.

 

[Good2Golf]

That will be for hotel (keeping the lights on) services during the cold move.

Looked like a lot of exhaust. Would that have been one of the propulsion DGs flashed up or one of the smaller aux DGs?

 

[FSTO]

Looked like a lot of exhaust. Would that have been one of the propulsion DGs flashed up or one of the smaller aux DGs?

Honestly, I don't know the engine arrangement for the MCDV's. But it looks like a god damn cold day so any exhaust is going to show.

 

[Journeyman]

I though I was looking at a 3rd sub flying, indicating the CO was ashore, but my tired eyes on my tiny phone now see it is the Desig flag. Although I would have thought her call sign would have still been hoisted until she had a line on the jetty, but then again its been a while since I looked at the Manual of Ceremony for HMC Ships

The only flags we were taught during boat-driving training were Alpha and Bravo. "Different reasons, but they both mean 'stay the fuck away from me'."

 

[Stoker]

That will be for hotel (keeping the lights on) services during the cold move.

Actually no, that ship had its propulsion up and three of four DA's online as it was at specials. Hotel load was provided by the Motor Alternator which is powered by 600V from the ships propulsion switchboard.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Mind explaining “at specials”?

 

[KevinB]

Mind explaining “at specials”?

Nautical term to confuse those of us non Navy types

 

[Furniture]

Mind explaining “at specials”?

The ship is closed up with "Special Sea Dutymen", meaning the ship is "fully" crewed(has enough to sail), and the pers who handle lines(part ship hands), staff steering, throttles, emergency steering, etc., are at their positions to take the ship alongside.

The folks in the orange floater coats are Sea Training, who are watching the crew, and assessing their ability to conduct operations safely.

 

[dimsum]

The folks in the orange floater coats are Sea Training, who are watching the crew, and assessing their ability to conduct operations safely.

Strange - I didn't see the red hats and involuntarily shudder...