Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Damen Ship­yards Group were on hand at Crew's Inn, Ch­aguara­mas, re­cent­ly to de­liv­er a pre­sen­ta­tion on De­vel­op­ments in Pa­trol Ship De­sign. In­vi­tees were not on­ly privy to in­for­ma­tion on the com­pa­ny's lat­est in­no­va­tions, but were al­so treat­ed to a first-hand look at the Damen Stan Pa­trol 4207. The ves­sel was ac­tu­al­ly on its way to Hon­duras to be part of that coun­try's en­hanced Coast Guard fleet. Damen, how­ev­er, took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make a short stop in Trinidad to give stake­hold­ers a clos­er view of the ves­sel.

Stan Pa­trol ves­sels are used for a wide va­ri­ety of tasks in har­bours, coastal wa­ters and off­shore to pa­trol the bor­ders of a coun­try's ex­clu­sive eco­nom­ic zone.The ves­sel dis­played at Ch­agua­nas is out­fit­ted with quar­ters for a crew of 20 per­sons. It is a self-con­tained plat­form, pro­vid­ing sur­veil­lance and com­mu­ni­ca­tion and can reach speeds of 26.3 knots with a range of about 700 nau­ti­cal miles at max­i­mum speed.

The ves­sel is al­ready in use in Bar­ba­dos, Ja­maica, Cana­da, the Dutch An­tilles and Mex­i­co. It has re­cent­ly been or­dered by the Ba­hamas De­fence Force and a larg­er 47-me­tre ver­sion will be the back­bone of the new Coast­guard fleet in the Unit­ed States.The Damen Ship­yards Group is a multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny with more 38 ship­yards.