Pre-commissioning trials continued this past week for the future HMCS HARRY DEWOLF, the first of the new Arctic/Offshore Patrol Vessels to enter RCN service, with the ship undertaking her first Replenishment-at-Sea (RAS) from the leased supply vessel MV Asterix. The trials began with the two ships sitting across from each other at Jetty NB, where I believe the hoses were first run across between the ships under controlled conditions.
Unfortunately, I don't have a photos of the hoses actually run across, and didn't see it myself (so I'm guessing), but I believe this was also done with a frigate in the past when Asterix first arrived in Halifax.
Asterix headed out on Tuesday afternoon, with HARRY DEWOLF heading out later in the evening (I caught the former, but missed the latter).
HARRY DEWOLF returned to port briefly on Wednesday, before heading out again. I was able to catch her arrival from the ferry on my way home from work.
Whereas the frigates have permanently mounted kingposts to allow at-sea refueling operations, the AOPVs are not expected to undertake RAS operations on a regular basis, and they require a temporary kingpost to be set up on the flight deck to accept the cables that support the refueling lines from the tanker. The refueling connection point itself is located at the forward end of the flight deck just behind the orange lifeboat. Regardless, it is a useful capability for these ships to have.
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