Austal has officially named the eighth and final Cape Class Patrol Boat Cape York during a ceremony held at Austal’s Henderson shipyard in Western Australia on October 2.
Cape York is the last of eight Cape-class patrol boats built by Austal for the Australian Border Force (ABF) under an AUD$330million design, construct and in-service support contract. The vessel was launched at Austal’s Henderson shipyard in September 2015 and has since undergone final fit out and sea trials, with final crew familiarisation to be completed prior to delivery to ABF in the next few weeks.
Named after Australia’s most northern point, Cape York in Queensland, the vessel represents the completion of the ABF’s most comprehensive border patrol capability asset programme and Austal’s third major, multiple vessel contract for the Australian Government.
Delivering a Cape-class patrol boat every 10 weeks (on average) over 2014-15, Austal has delivered the programme on time and within budget; completing over 1.85 million man hours and processing over 900 tonnes of aluminium in the construction of the eight vessels.
[mappress mapid=”17090″]
Image: Austal