Keel laying for HAWEA
The keel was laid for the second Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV), to be named HAWEA on Wednesday 13 December at the Tenix shipyard in Whangarei. The ship will be affiliated to the West Coast region, with Greymouth and Westport as 'home ports'.
A giant truck and trailer unit gently moved Module 3 of Hawea on to the consolidation bay. Module 3 is the central module of the five which make up the hull of the second Inshore Patrol Vessel. This is part of Project PROTECTOR, a project which will provide a significant capability for a range of Government agencies and the Navy to protect New Zealand’s maritime borders.
Right - IPV team in Whangerei with keel of HAWEA (MC 06-0686-04).
Module 3 was placed in position, with a coin placed into a special cavity carved into the wooden dock block before the block was hammered home. The Keel Laying Ceremony dates back hundreds of years, where a Talisman was inserted into the keel of a vessel at the start of the build to protect the ship builders and future seafarers from bad luck. This tradition takes many forms in modern shipbuilding; at Tenix Group the Talisman is a coin placed under the keel of the vessel. HAWEA had a special edition New Zealand silver five dollar coin laid, which will be retrieved at launch and presented to the ships company at a later date.