Seaspan Shipyards completes prototype block for Canada’s new polar icebreaker

Photo: Seaspan

Both the U.S. and Canada are both building their first polar icebreakers in decades. Polar icebreakers use steel that is considerably thicker than in conventional ships and with tight frame spacings to support icebreaking loads. Last August, Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., began to construct the first of eight prototype modules for the first U.S. Coast Guard polar security cutter (PSC), to test the new systems, processes, people, and tools that are required to work with the specialized steel (see earlier story). Meantime, in Canada, Seaspan Shipyards, Vancouver, B.C., reports that it has now successfully completed construction of the prototype block for the Canada’s new polar icebreaker program.

Seaspan says that construction of this prototype block ensures that it has the proper processes, procedures, equipment, and skills necessary to build the first heavy polar icebreaker in Canada in more than 60 years.

Seaspan has developed and built the prototype block to ensure that its production teams are fully prepared to cut steel on the polar icebreaker in late 2024. It says that the process of building the prototype block resulted in learnings in three key areas: improvements in design for manufacturing; testing of new equipment, processes and procedures; and validation of first-time quality in manufacturing to form and weld this new, specialized and thicker steel.

“Having the opportunity for our engineering and production teams to work collaboratively to construct this prototype block very early in the design process was beneficial not only to Seaspan, but also to our customer and our cross-county supply chain,” said Martin Edwards, chief program officer at Seaspan Shipyards. “We are all working toward the same goal of delivering the polar icebreaker to the Canadian Coast Guard. Our skilled trades team has now seen, felt, tested, and worked on this specialized steel, so we are now better prepared to ensure that Seaspan begins full rate construction with a more mature design.”

The steel needed to construct the Canadian polar icebreaker is twice as thick in some areas as the steel Seaspan has used for the other ships built under Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy and is more challenging to work with combined with the tight frame spaces to support icebreaking capabilities.

It also takes additional time to weld, and the thicker steel is not as malleable, therefore constructing this extra prototype block prior to starting full rate construction was crucial for the shipyard’s preparedness.

“The completion of the prototype block for our polar icebreaker is an important milestone for the Canadian Coast Guard,” said Mario Pelletier, Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard. “We eagerly await its delivery as this vessel will extend Coast Guard on-water operations and ensure the continuous delivery of critical services in the high Arctic. This includes search and rescue, environmental and humanitarian response, supporting important ocean science and arctic sovereignty.”

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 is currently under construction at its Vancouver Shipyards location; and a class of up to sixteen multi-purpose vessels (also polar class) that is currently in design.

Canada’s new polar icebreaker will be an incredibly complex ship, designed to operate in the Arctic’s ice- covered waters, and will play a critical role in enabling the Canadian Coast Guard to transit and operate on more than 162,000 kilometers of Arctic coastline.

With Canada’s current largest icebreaker, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, set to retire at the end of the decade after 60 years of service, the new polar icebreaker will be one of the world’s largest and most powerful conventionally-powered icebreakers. The ship will be the flagship vessel of the Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreaking fleet.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT CANADA’S NEW POLAR ICEBREAKER

With a displacement of 27,876 tonnes, the polar icebreaker will be 158 meters long and 28 meters wide, and able to accommodate up to 100 personnel. It will be able to operate farther north, in more difficult ice conditions and for longer periods than any icebreaker in Canada to date.

The primary missions of the Polar icebreaker include protecting Canada’s sovereignty, Arctic science, environmental response, northern resupply, and search and rescue.

KEY DESIGN FEATURES

• IACS Polar Class 2 (PC2) heavy icebreaker
• More than 40 MW 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 (RPAS) capability