The Severn-class lifeboat of Canada is a redesign of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's Severn-class lifeboat to meet the needs of the Canadian Coast Guard for off-shore search and rescue operations in severe conditions.
Programme
In 2015, the Canadian Coast Guard announced a request for proposals (RFP) to build up to ten new search and rescue lifeboats as part of Canada's National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. The vessels are intended to replace the Coast Guard's ten Arun-class lifeboats, which averaged 18 years of service at the time of the RFP.
The new design is the work of Canadian nautical architectural firm Robert Allan Ltd. and is a modification of the Severn-class lifeboat, making the vessels more suited to the extreme weather conditions that can be found off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Capable of 23.5 knots (43.5 km/h; 27.0 mph), the new vessels will be almost twice as fast as the earlier Arun-class vessels. They are capable of operating in 12-metre (39 ft) waves, and in wind conditions at 12 on the Beaufort scale. The vessels' hulls will be aluminum, not fiberglass, as with the original Severn design. At 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) the vessels will have twice the range of the original Severn design.