Cable Innovator Vessel Completes Successful Visit to Vancouver Drydock

June 15, 2025

Last month, the team at Seaspan’s Vancouver Drydock welcomed back the Cable Innovator, one of the more distinctive vessels in recent memory to visit our North Vancouver ship-repair and maintenance facility. 

Owned by Global Marine Group, the striking red and white ship is hard to miss. It has a total length of 145.5-metres (that’s larger than a football field) and weighs in at an impressive 14,277 gross-tonnes. In addition to its size, the Cable Innovator boasts an interesting primary mission: laying and repairing undersea fibre-optic internet cables. 

The vessel has been involved in many notable projects, including completing a platform-to-platform fibre connectivity project in the North Sea and has supported multiple trans-oceanic cable lays. In addition to helping the world stay connected, the multi-role vessel supports a wide range of industries. 

This includes deep-sea research and oil & gas — important work that Vancouver Drydock is proud to support by ensuring the Cable Innovator is in top shape.  

Kyle McConnell, Project Manager at Vancouver Drydock, enjoyed seeing the vessel return to the North Shore after overseeing its last drydocking in 2023. “It’s one of my favourite vessels that has come through the drydock,” he explained. “This is my second time managing the project and Global Marine is just a great team to work with.”  

The Cable Innovator holds a special place in the minds of more than one Seaspan employee.  

For Jari Anttila, Chief Operating Officer at Seaspan, this ship is significant not only because of its unique capabilities – it also serves as a reminder of his early career in the marine industry, as the ship was originally built in his home country of Finland, at the shipyard where he started his shipbuilding career.  

“It was great to be onboard this vessel again after being involved in its construction in Finland almost 30 years ago,” said Jari. “It was one of the first ships where I was involved in building and in hull production, after several years being part of an LNG carrier project for Abu Dhabi.” As a Steel Production Manager at the time, Jari was overseeing the construction of parts, sub-assemblies, panels, and blocks that would form the vessel.  

Now many years later, Jari is still proud to be part of the shipbuilding industry – and his experience supporting the construction of this ship is a testament not only to the depth of expertise on our team, but also to the longevity of the Cable Innovator. 

To ensure that the ship is well-maintained and ready to standby should it be needed, this year’s project scope (this was the vessel’s 30-year special survey) included vital maintenance and upgrades, including:  

Planning and communication were critical to ensuring the success of the Cable Innovator’s 30-year survey. Visits with the Global Marine team were coordinated in advance of the project start date to ensure teams were familiar with both the drydock and the vessel, and to gain insights into the task ahead.  

The drydocking was completed successfully on May 13, a result of the strong collaboration between Seaspan and the team at Global Marine, including John Cossey, the vessel superintendent.  

“This is my second time working with the Seaspan team, and I have to say — everyone in the yard and on the ship worked together from day one,” said John. “When there were challenges, we all sat down together and talked them through clearly and sensibly. It was notable that there was good communication from the outset which is a key factor in any docking. I would be happy to work with this team again in the future.”  

Projects like these highlight the strategic role Vancouver Drydock plays in supporting specialized ships, like this one that helps maintain global communications infrastructure. The vessel is now back on standby, ready to support any undersea cable repair emergencies that may arise.