USCGC Albacore

USCGC Albacore
Albacore conducts security patrols in Washington D.C. during Memorial Day Weekend 2004.
History
United States
NameAlbacore
NamesakeAlbacore
OperatorUnited States Coast Guard
BuilderBollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
In service1999
Out of serviceMarch 10, 2021
Home port
IdentificationHull number: WPB-87309
FateTransferred to Uruguay, 2022
Uruguay
NameRío Arapey
NamesakeArapey River
OperatorNational Navy of Uruguay
AcquiredDecember 15, 2021
CommissionedSeptember 1, 2022
IdentificationROU 14
StatusIn active service
General characteristics
Class & typeMarine Protector-class patrol boat
Length87 ft (27 m)
Complement10 (2004)

USCGC Albacore (WPB-87309) is an 87-foot (27 m) Marine Protector-class that served in the United States Coast Guard from 1999 to 2021. It was based at Little Creek in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and later at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, where it served as the academy's only operational unit. Its missions included search and rescue, law enforcement, naval vessel escorts, recreational boating safety and fisheries enforcement. After it was decommissioned in March 2021, the United States donated it to Uruguay where it now serves in the National Navy of Uruguay as ROU 14 Río Arapey.

Design

Albacore is one of the Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boats built for the Coast Guard by Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana, under a contract first awarded on March 13, 1996. The class replaced the older 82-foot Point-class cutters.

United States Coast Guard

Little Creek

Albacore entered Coast Guard service in 1999. By 2004 it was docked at Coast Guard Station Little Creek in Virginia Beach and was used mainly for coastal patrols. Its boarding teams checked boats for compliance with Coast Guard safety rules and searched them for illegal weapons and drugs.

New London

In 2015 Albacore went through the Coast Guard's 87-foot "Bow-to-Stern" maintenance program at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore. Under the program, a patrol boat that had finished a 60-day overhaul at the yard took the place of another boat, which then began its own overhaul. Albacore was delivered on August 19, 2015, on time and under budget, and replaced Chinook as the patrol boat based at New London. At New London, Albacore was attached to the Coast Guard Academy as the only operational unit at the academy. Its missions there included search and rescue, escorting naval vessels, recreational boating safety and enforcing fisheries regulations.

Decommissioning

Albacore was decommissioned on March 10, 2021, at a ceremony in Panama City, Florida, after 22 years of service.

National Navy of Uruguay

In June 2021 the United States approved the donation of Albacore and its sister ships Gannet and Cochito to Uruguay under the Excess Defense Articles program, valued at $8,685,000. The commander of the Uruguayan Navy, Admiral Jorge Wilson, signed the letter of acceptance on December 15, 2021. Uruguay received the boats as a no-cost grant but paid $4.9 million for their refurbishment and for training its crews.

The three boats were handed over to the Uruguayan Navy at a ceremony at the Coast Guard base in Baltimore in 2022. The plan was for two to be based at the new Fray Bentos Naval Base on the Uruguay River and the third at Montevideo. A Uruguayan government decree of April 17, 2023, formally added the boats to the navy as of September 1, 2022, and named the former Albacore ROU 14 Río Arapey. The boats left the United States in September 2022, and by January 2023 the navy was using them to patrol its waterways on the border with Argentina.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Coast Guard Cutter Albacore decommissioned in Panama City [Image 3 of 9]". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. March 10, 2021. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Albacore Crew Tells About Life Aboard Ship". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. October 7, 2004. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Tenants". United States Coast Guard Academy. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Decreto N° 123/023" (in Spanish). IMPO, Dirección Nacional de Impresiones y Publicaciones Oficiales. April 17, 2023. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 "Uruguayan Navy receives three Protector class patrol boats from US". Army Recognition. September 19, 2022. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Uruguay receives three Marine Protector-class patrol boats from US Coast Guard". Naval Today. December 22, 2021. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Bollinger Shipyards Celebrates Success". MarineLink. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  8. ↑ "87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat (WPB) – Marine Protector Class". U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on May 17, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Coast Guard Cutter Albacore decommissioned in Panama City [Image 5 of 9]". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. March 10, 2021. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  10. ↑ "New Protector-Class Patrol Boats Monitor Border With Argentina". Military Periscope. January 20, 2023. Retrieved November 12, 2026.