Seaspan Begins Construction on Heavy Polar Icebreaker
Seaspan Shipyards has cut steel on the Canadian Coast Guard’s (CCG) new heavy polar icebreaker, marking the first time a heavy polar icebreaker has been built in Canada in more than 60 years.
It will play a critical role in enabling the Canadian Coast Guard to transit and operate on more than 162,000 kilometers of Arctic coastline.
The Polar Class 2 icebreaker will help sustain a 12-month presence in Canada’s North in support of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty, high-Arctic science (including climate change research), indigenous peoples and other northern communities, and the ability to respond to major maritime emergencies including search and rescue.
It will be able to accommodate up to 100 personnel, and, as one of the only Polar Class 2 vessels in the world, will be able to operate farther north, in more difficult ice conditions and for longer periods than any icebreaker in Canada to date. It is designed to operate self-sufficiently in the high-Arctic year-round.
The ship will be the seventh vessel designed and built by Seaspan under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). It will also be the fifth Polar Class vessel to be built for the CCG, and one of up to 21 icebreaking vessels overall that Seaspan is constructing.
In January 2024, Seaspan completed construction of a polar Prototype Block to ensure preparedness to build this highly-advanced vessel, which requires steel that is twice as thick in some areas, while also being less malleable, as the steel Seaspan has used for the other ships built under the NSS.
Seaspan is the only shipyard currently building polar icebreakers in Canada.
The Polar Icebreaker will be 158 meters long and 28 meters wide, with a design displacement of 26,036t.
Highlights of key design features, include:
• More than 40MW of installed power
• Ice-classed azimuthing propulsion system
• Complex, multi-role mission capability
• Scientific Laboratories
• Moon Pool (to allow for safe deployment of equipment from within the ship)
• Helicopter flight deck and hangar
• Vehicle garage and future remotely piloted aircraft system capability
Seaspan has already gained significant experience designing and building Polar Class vessels including three Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels which are now in service with the Canadian Coast Guard; an Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel that will be delivered to the CCG in the coming months; and up to 16 Multi-Purpose Icebreakers (also Polar Class) that are currently in construction engineering.