Two new boats for Trinidad and Tobago

Austal Australia has handed over two new patrol boats to the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. They were named after the capital of the state, Port of Spain, and the capital of the island of Tobago, Scarborough. At just under 58 metres long and 10 metres wide, the monohulls of the Cape-class has a draught of three metres. A maximum speed of 25 knots can be achieved and the operational radius is up to 3000 nautical miles. The newcomers each have two Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) with a length of 7.3 metres for operations in shallow waters or for transferring people. On behalf of the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, Lieutenant Commander Francise Paulette Cazoe took delivery of the boats at Austal: "The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is delighted to welcome the impressive new RHIBs. Cape-class boats, which will improve our operational performance."
With the new boats, the Caribbean state is utilising a proven design that was developed by the Australian shipyard Austal. Ten units have already been built for the Australian Navy and Coast Guard between 2011 and 2017, eight of which were supplied to the Coast Guard. A further six boats are to be delivered to the Royal Australian Navy in the coming years. Based on this, some change requests were implemented for Trinidad and Tobago. For example, it is now possible to add additional weapons to the two machine guns available on the Australian units. In addition, the maximum crew size has been increased from 18 to 28.

Lt Cdr Francise P. Cazoe (l.) and Austal CEO Paddy Gregg

Text: mb; Photo: Austal Australia