Ice Breakers

Thordon Bearings and Heddle Shipyards have successfully completed a retrofit project to replace the shaft seals and bearings aboard the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) vessels CCGS Caribou Isle and CCGS Ile St. Ours. The vessels represent not only the first reference for Thordon’s award-winning TG100 SRTP shaft seal onboard a Canadian Coast Guard vessel, but also the growing importance of Ontario’s promising maritime partnership in facilitating CCG requirements.

CCGS Terry Fox, one the largest icebreakers in the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) fleet, has returned to service with new Thordon propeller shaft bearings after concluding that fitting laminate phenolic bearings would extend dry dock time and costs. The 88m (289ft) long vessel, built in the 1980s had been operating Thordon’s water lubricated elastomeric polymer bearings on both shafts for 24 years. Then in 2018 the port shaft was retrofitted with a European made laminate phenolic-type bearing as part of a shaft alignment contract with the manufacturer.