The U.S. Coast Guard is considering two Oregon ports as possible home ports for two new 154-foot Sentinel fast response cutters. The Port of Newport and Port of Astoria were toured earlier this year by Coast Guard officials during their assessment of possible ports along the West Coast. Other West Coast locations include Honolulu, Hawaii, Ketchikan, Alaska, and San Pedro, CA. The USCG plans to purchase 58 of the cutters, at $73 million each. They have a range of 2,950 nautical miles and a top speed of 28-knots. The Sentinel will be used to replace the aging 110-foot Island class patrol boats. Newport is already home to the Hatfield Marine Science center and its research vessel, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) home ports its MOC-P research vessels in Yaquina Bay, and Newport is only one of 16 cities in the U.S. designated as a “Coast Guard City.”
