The Belize Coast Guard is in the process of revamping its fleet of seagoing vessels and earlier this week the maritime law enforcement agency was gifted with a newly-built watercraft to assist with operations inside the reef. According to Rear Admiral John Borland, there is presently a need to renew the existing vessels since those that were refurbished have done already done their time within Belize’s sea space.
Rear Admiral John Borland, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard
“The coast guard is in the middle of reorganizing and restructuring and replacing its current fleet of boats. We operate a set of Boston Whaler triple engine, thirty-five foot Justice boats that are the mainstay or the workhorses of the coast guard right now and we also operate a fleet of Eduardono refurbished vessels. Both classes of vessels are on their last legs, it is getting more increasingly expensive to maintain, to repair, to refit, to overhaul and so it’s come to a point where we probably need to start replacing both classes of vessels and this, what we see here today is the prototype for the smaller version that will do within-the-reef operations. We are very pleased, in fact we are very impressed by what has been presented here today and it’s certainly is a platform that we will be working forward with in replacing the within-the-reef assets. And we’re also looking closely at the same platform to be extended to a larger platform with more horsepower behind it to get us to do beyond-the-reef operations.”