Page 49: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2023)

FINLAND

Arctia’s newest icebreaker, Polaris, was designed by

Aker Arctic to op- erate in all local ice conditions.

Built by Arctech

Helsinki Shipyard in 2016 based up the Aker ARC 130 concept, the ves- © Marko Hannula / Adobe Stock sel is 110 meters long with a 24-meter beam and an 8-meter draft, allowing the vessel to operate in all major Finnish shipping lanes. The combined output of the vessel’s electrical power plant is about 22.5 megawatts (MW), making it the most powerful in the Finnish ? eet.

The state-of-the-art vessel features dual-fuel engines capable of using both marine diesel and lique? ed natural gas (LNG), meaning it is also Arctia’s greenest.

there are limitations of what kind of ves-

HEAVY FABRICATION sel you can use during the wintertime.” DRY DOCKS

MARINE REPAIR

It is expected that cargo tonnage en-

VESSEL CONVERSION tering and exiting Finnish ports will

MACHINE SHOPS increase dramatically over the coming

OFFSHORE ROPE ACCESS decade, meaning greater demand for

LAY BERTHING

Arctia’s services, Kojonen said, noting

RIDING GANGS changes to the merchant ? eet as another driver. “Vessels are getting bigger, but less powerful due to environmental reg- ulation changes.”

In the context of climate change, Ko- jonen said winters are trending shorter, but conditions at sea are becoming more dif? cult. “Climate change brings more extremes—warmer winters, but also more severe winters. It doesn’t look like it’s easing in Baltic waters in the com- ing decades,” he said. “There might be less ice coverage in square kilometers, but the ice is moving all about; it doesn’t freeze and stay there. The conditions,

Galveston – Port Arthur – Corpus Christi - Norfolk (VA) - México (CdC) from what I hear from the captains, are (281) 752-4835 | www.gulfcopper.com | [email protected] getting more dif? cult over time.” www.marinelink.com 49

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