| Her sister ships were: Racer, Rally, Rapid and Ready. This vessel appears to have been wrecked on the Brooks Peninsula, on the west coast of Vancouver Island around 2008-2010. This vessel was being used as a floating bunkhouse by some handloggers. It appears that this vessel was lost in tow and drifted onto the shore. Captain Tony Toxopeus states "CCGS Rider was the “Black Sheep of the “R Class Cutters” The Rider was stationed at Kitsilano Coast Guard Station in Vancouver, the “Ready and Racer” were stationed in Victoria at the old base under the Johnson street bridge. Crew changes were always a hustle and bustle affair at Kitsilano as we didn’t have the same support that the other two cutters had at the main CG Base, the Rider was different from the other Cutters as we had large boat deck that we built without CCG permission in Lyall Harbor one summer, 2 swinging davits for the rescue boat and work boat, a Dutchman bar across the stern which replaced the teak “taffrail” it wasn’t pretty but made towing stricken vessels much easier. The Rider had a “State of the Art” “ISIS” room which was like a 1960’s computer that was supposed to monitor the propulsion engines, the ISIS was usually the part of the ship that created problems when charging off to a rescue call, the turbo chargers would glow bright red and the alarms would start going off and the Chief Engineer would be pleading with the Captain that the “Dilithium Crystals were going to blow!” just like Scotty on the starship Enterprise”. We shipped out two weeks on then two weeks off and would usually circle Vancouver Island, follow the fishing fleet around the mid coast and occasionally off to the Charlottes. The crews consisted of 12 back then a Master, Mate, 4 Seaman (two were Divers) the Chief Engineer, 2nd Engineer and two oilers, the all important Cook and we even carried a Steward in those days who served meals and took care of the beds in the Officers cabins. The cook set the mood for the trip… bad cook long trip, a good cook made the trips much easier to enjoy. Three crewman in each aft cabin shared small cabins about 7’ by 12’ so you had to be very good sharing space with others. The crew cabins were right on top of the propeller shafts so you always knew what was going on even when you were sleeping. The ship's primary task was Search and Rescue, but we also spent quite a bit of time repairing Aids to Navigation, and confirming buoy positions with Horizontal Sextant angles before GPS took that task away." |
