RRS Sir David Attenborough

RRS Sir David Attenborough is a research vessel owned by the Natural Environment Research Council, to be operated by the British Antarctic Survey for the purposes of both research and logistic support. In this, the ship is intended to replace a pair of existing vessels, RRS James Clark Ross and RRS Ernest Shackleton. The vessel is named after broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural history documentary series forming the Life collection, a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth.
The RRS Sir David Attenborough is one of the most advanced polar research vessels in the world. The new polar ship was commissioned by NERC, built by Cammell Laird for operation by British Antarctic Survey. In October 2020 the technical sea trials and scientific equipment testing began and the ship was handed over to NERC and BAS by shipbuilder Cammell Laird on 27 November 2020. This multidisciplinary research platform will transform how ship-borne science is conducted in the polar regions and provide scientists with state-of-the-art facilities to research the oceans, seafloor, ice and atmosphere. The polar ship departed the UK for its maiden voyage on 17 November 2021.

Le Commandant Charcot

Le Commandant Charcot is an icebreaking cruise ship operated by the French shipping company Compagnie du Ponant, named after the French polar scientist Jean-Baptiste Charcot.

Le Commandant Charcot is a Polar Class 2 rated icebreaking vessel capable of reaching remote polar destinations such as the Geographic North Pole. She is based on the VARD 6 17 design and features a hybrid power plant powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and electric batteries.

The vessel was built at Vard Tulcea shipyard in Romania, was launched in March 2020 and left the yard in Romania on 29 March, heading for Norway. She arrived at VARD shipyard in Søvik, Haram, Norway on 28 April 2020. In June 2021, she was in the Arctic for the first time during a test drive and, after delivery on 29 July 2021, Le Commandant Charcot sailed from mainland Norway to Svalbard and from there to the Geographic North Pole, where she arrived on 6 September 2021.

In December 2021, the ship will undertake a 16-day exploration cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina to the Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula, allowing passengers to experience a total solar eclipse from the Weddell Sea ice pack.

Pr 22600 – Viktor Chernomyrdin (Виктор Черномырдин)

The development of this 25-megawatt (LK25) icebreaker dates back to the first long-term plans for rebuilding the Russian icebreaker fleet after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
As part of these plans that were published in the early 1990s, a number of both conventional and nuclear-powered icebreaker icebreaker type size series were developed, ranging from 7-megawatt auxiliary icebreakers (LK-7) operating near large ports to 110-megawatt nuclear icebreakers (LK-110Ya) capable of breaking ice up to 3.5 meters (11 ft) thick. Of these, the 25-megawatt line icebreakers (LK-25) were intended to escort merchant ships and lead convoys through freezing seas, and operate as auxiliary ships in complex convoys along the Northern Sea Route. During the summer season, they could also escort ships independently over shallow waters in the Arctic.
While an early LK-25 concept was presented already in the 1990s, the current design, Project 22600, was developed in 2008 by the Russian Petrobalt Design Bureau in co-operation with the Finnish Aker Arctic who had developed the hybrid propulsion configuration and carried out model-scale tests for the concept. Following the challenging winter navigating season of 2010–2011 the Russian government decided to proceed with LK25, on 2 December 2011, Rosmorport and St. Petersburg-based Baltic Shipyard signed the contract and the keel-laying ceremony was held on 10 October 2012.

Pr 22600 – Viktor Chernomyrdin as planned in 2011

The ship was initially expected to enter service in the Gulf of Finland in December 2015 and would be named after Viktor Chernomyrdin (1938–2010) the founder and first chairman of Gazprom.
In November 2014, it was reported that the construction of the icebreaker had been suspended already in December 2013 due to problems with the design and the delivery had been until July 2017.
In 2016 come out other issues related to building costs… the vessel was finally launched on 30 December 2016 and in July 2017 the unfinished icebreaker was transferred to Admiralty Shipyard for outfitting. On 27 November 2018, a fire broke out on board the vessel, injuring two workers and damaging about 300 square meters of technical spaces. In April 2020 the disagreement had been settled and finally the flag raising ceremony was held on 3 November 2020.

Pr 22600 – Viktor Chernomyrdin as delivered in 2020

Antartica 1° – New Icebreaker for Chilean Navy

The Antártica 1 Project originated in 2011 when it had become evident that the icebreaker Almirante Óscar Viel (AP-46) was at the end of its useful life cycle and a replacement had to be considered. Antártica 1 will be an Ice Class (PC5) icebreaker, whose basic engineering is in the hands of the Canadian company, Vard Marine. It will measure 111 meters long and 21 meters wide, with a draft of seven meters. It will be able to sail at a constant speed of two knots in ice up to one meter thick, covered in 30 centimeters of snow. In normal weather conditions, it will have a maximum speed of 15 knots. Thanks to its hull, it can operate in extremely cold environments – at minus 30 degrees Celsius. It will have a 60-day autonomous range without resupply, a 120-person capacity, and it will be able to operate 250 days a year, unlike the Almirante Óscar Viel (AP-46), which could do so only in the summer months.

CHILE, AGB Antartica 1

Nuclear IB Sybir – Concept design for Project 10510

Russia is working on the next generation of nuclear icebreaker and there are already some preliminary informations. The current denomination is Project 10510 – Leader class and will take into account operative routes at latitudes higher than current ones. The overall length will be a bit more than 200 meter with a width of 50 meters and will be equipped with two reactors.

Beside the official project for the real ship some University students were asked for a Concept Design of such IB. They were asked to create something feasible but to not limit the imagination (layout, diagrams and technical data have been taken into accout).
The Concept Design of Pavla Tomashevskogo has been published and some pictures are floating in some russian sites: it is definetely an amazing design and therefore I made the SB version.

Russia – Nuclear Icebreaker Sybir – Concept design for Project 10510

Arctic Module Carriers AUDAX & PUGNAX

The Liquefied Natural Gas plant in Sabetta will be constructed of several hundred different modules, which are built at different locations around the world. These modules weigh up to 10,000 tons and will be gathered in a European harbour before shipment to Yamal. It will take about four years to deliver them all to the Arctic area. Due to the harsh conditions found in the area with temperatures down to minus 40 degrees Celsius for part of the year, no ordinary vessel is able to take care of this kind of transportation. Aker Arctic has developed two module carriers, which can operate year-round in delivering the modules to Yamal. These carriers are different from anything designed and constructed earlier. They are typical heavy cargo ships with a wide cargo deck, but designed for exceptional ice circumstances as they need to be able to move in the Gulf of Ob round the year in order to keep the construction of the LNG plant on schedule. The ice class is therefore Polar Class 3.

Arctic Module Carrier Audax & Pugnax

Supply-vessels for Sakhalin oil and gas fields

Hostile Arctic climate and difficult geographical conditions have required the use of unique technologies to work in the Sakhalin oil and gas fields, located off the northeast coast of Sakhalin Island.

The supply vessels are designed for extreme environmental conditions in the Sakhalin area. In addition to meeting the year-round, multifarious re-supply needs of the platform, the specified range of capabilities that had to be encompassed by the supply vessels included firefighting, ice management in the sense of protecting the platform structure from ice, oil spill response, standby, rescue services, and towing.

The main duty of the vessels is to supply between land bases and the offshore drilling and production sites. The vessels are able to safely convey and transfer cargo on deck and bulk cargo underdeck in all seasons. The vessels will also be operating in thick drifting ice for ice management and icebreaking duties in temperatures as cold as minus 35 C°.  The icebreaking capability of the vessels is extremely high, being able to proceed independently in 1.5 meter thick ice. The vessels are outfitted for emergency evacuation, rescue and fire fighting operations, oil spill response and platform overboard working and helicopter operations.

The first unit is the FESCO Sakhalin, purchased by Sovcomflot from Far Eastern Shipping Company in 2010 and renamed SCF Sakhalin.

Russia – Icebreaker Fesco Sakhalin

Russia – Icebreaker SCF Sakhalin

SCF Vitus Bering and second-of-class SCF Aleksei Chirikov are upgraded versions of FESCO Sakhalin. While the main dimensions and hull form of the Vitus Bering type are nearly identical to the earlier vessel, the various modifications have included a covered foredeck, to better protect the mooring gear and the crew from the elements.

Russia – Icebreaker Vitus Bering & Alexey Chirikov

 

Research Vessel Investigator

The 94 m research vessel, RV Investigator, is available for multidisciplinary research in the oceans and seas around Australia.
RV Investigator was commissioned in 2014-15 to replace the 66m Southern Surveyor. Investigator has a greater range and can carry more scientific personnel than Southern Surveyor, enabling research to be carried out to the Antarctic ice-edge.
The Marine National Facility is based at CSIRO’s Marine Laboratories in Hobart, Tasmania, which is also home port for the research vessel.

The RV Investigator is able to accommodate up to 40 scientists, go to sea for up to 60 days at a time and spend up to 300 days of the year at sea on research voyages. Special features of the ship are a “gondola”, similar to a winged keel, mounted 1.2 m below the hull, and two drop keels (which can be lowered to a maximum of 4m below the hull), to carry scientific instruments below the layer of  microbubbles created by the movement of the ship’s hull through the water. Such instrumentation includes acoustic mappers and a pelagic sediment profiler to produce maps of the sea floor. The hull and the machinery of the ship have been designed to operate as quietly as possible to enhance its scientific capabilities.

CSIRO Research Vessel Investigator

MPSV07 – Multi purpose salvage vessel

MPSV07 class vessels are a series of four icebreaking salvage vessels, which were delivered between 2012 and 2015. The lead vessels of Project MPSV07, Spasatel Karaev, was put into operation on 25 October 2012; the second ship, Spasatel Kavdeikin – on 19 July 2013, the third Ship, Spasatel Zaborshchikov – on 17 December 2013. The fourth ship, Spasatel Demidov, was ordered later separately and therefore was commissioned two years later than the 3rd ship – on 4 December 2015.
Multipurpose salvage vessel with unlimited navigation area of high ice class is intended for search and assistance to vessels in distress; for search, rescue and evacuation of people; for refloat from ground damaged vessels and their towing; fire fighting on vessels, fire fighting of fuel burning on water; oil spills response; performance of deep-water diving operations at the depth up to 300 m; survey of a sea-bottom and damaged objects on depth down to 1000 m
The vessels are 73m long and deadweight at maximum draft is approximately 1,171t. The vessels has a sea endurance of 20 days.

Multi Purpose Salvage Vessel MPSV 07

 

MPSV06 – Multi purpose salvage vessel

MPSV06 class vessels are a series of three icebreaking salvage vessels, one of which is being built in Russia and two that have been ordered from the German shipbuilder Nordic Yards Wismar. The first vessel of the class, Spasatel Petr Gruzinskiy, was reportedly laid down at Amur Shipbuilding Plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia, already in 2010 but is not yet operative. The second and third vessels, Beringov Proliv and Murman, were laid down in November 2013 at Nordic Yards and launched in September 2014. Both ships were delivered on December 2015.

The ice class of the vessels, assigned by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, is Icebreaker. They have two large cranes, for salvage, and a landing platform for helicopters. They are capable of operating remotely operated underwater vehicles, and have decompression facilities sufficient to support a team of deep divers.

Multi Purpose Salvage Vessel MPSV06