WATCH: Canada’s Icebreaking Hovercraft Sipu Muin

The CCGS Sipu Muin is a powerful, heavy hovercraft that is used for icebreaking on hard-to-access areas along the St. Lawrence River where conventional icebreakers cannot navigate. The hovercraft is also equipped as a buoytender, and can be used in search and rescue, environmental pollution response, and navigational aid construction and maintenance operations.

The craft is used as a buoytender in the Quebec Region, meaning that she can be called upon to lay, service and recover buoys. The CCGS Sipu Muin is equipped with a crane capable of lifting up to 4 500 kg. Her versatility and 23 000 kg payload enable her to transport any combination of cargo and passengers through areas that are not easily accessible.

Vehicles can be loaded directly on deck by a bow ramp, making the CCGS Sipu Muin particularly useful in pollution clean-up operations, since the craft is also completely amphibious. In addition, she is regularly assigned to search and rescue operations and navigational aids construction and maintenance operations.

Although the CCGS Sipu Muin is used primarily between Montréal and Trois Rivières, she can be deployed rapidly to any area under Coast Guard jurisdiction, like other Coast Guard units. Her home port is Trois Rivières.

The vessel is homeported in Trois Rivières, Quebec.

CCGS Sipu Muin

• Type Medium/River Icebreaker
• Length 28.5 m
• Breadth 12 m
• Power 2818 kW
• Maximum speed 50 knots
• Cruising speed 45 knots
• Maximum weight 70 tm
• Core crew 8
• Builder Westland Aerospace, England and Hike Metal Products Ltd, Ontario
• Year Built 1998