Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards is proud to have the opportunity to design and construct the future workhorse of the Canadian Coast Guard Fleet – the Multi Purpose Vessel (MPV). The MPV is a hugely ambitious design project, combining the operational roles of 16 existing ships of 8 different classes into a single, versatile platform. Further increasing the challenge, the MPV must be designed to demonstrate Canada’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions in shipping and continue this ethos throughout the very long operational life-span of the vessel. With 16 ships on order and a service life of over 35 years, we are designing the ship of tomorrow, today. As a result, the key design parameter for the MPV can be summed up in a single word: versatility. This presentation will provide a summary of the approach Seaspan has taken to meeting this ambitious challenge. We will explore how this balance has been struck architecturally and technologically, how investigations into novel or alternative technologies have yielded interesting (and sometimes surprising) results, and how the MPV Basic Design has settled into a future-ready vessel that can be easily adapted to a wide variety of operational missions and future technological developments.