Feature 1 | CRUISESHIP TECHNOLOGY Aker Arctic takes pole position
Details have emerged of a concept for a newbuild cruiseship specifically designed for the burgeoning Polar expedition market.
P
olar Star, built in Finland to serve in the Swedish Maritime Administration’s fleet of icebreakers
under the name of Njord, underwent a complete retrofit in 2000, becoming what owner Polar Cruise Enterprises claims is
TECHNICAL PARTICULARS Polar Cruise Enterprise concept Polar newbuild
Length O.A. ......................................135.5m Length at water line ...........................127m Beam at water line ..........................17.68m Beam hull ............................................17.8m Gross tonnage .................................. 10,950 Double occupancy .............................. 202 Pax cabins .............................................. 101 Max number of pax ............................... 242 Crew .......................................................... 76 Deadweight ...................................2395dwt Main engines ..................... 4 x MaK 6M32C engines generating 11.52MW
Propulsion power ........................2 x 3.5MW Service speed ................................. 13knots Height of bulkhead deck ...................7.2m Life saving appliances .......................... 318 Lifeboats ..................................................... 2 Mob boats .................................................. 2 Class DNV Ice Class ................................. 05
one of the safest and most comfortable ice class cruise vessels in operation, with safety standards exceeding international requirements for several years to come. Capable of carrying 105 passengers on Polar expedition cruises that by definition are to remote destinations, the ship is equipped with 10 16-man zodiacs. Now, Norway’s Polar Cruise
Enterprises, has been encouraged by market demand to step into the newbuilding market, and is working with ice-going ship research specialist Aker Arctic to develop the concept for a Polar vessel specifically designed for remote Polar cruises from scratch. Te resulting ship is expected to surpass any of the passenger ships currently plying the Polar trades in terms of structural strength: Its stern section will be built to DNV Ice Class 05, one step up from Ice Class 1A. By comparison, for example, the well-known expedition ship Fram, was built to Baltic Ice Class 1B. Te Polar Cruise vessel will be designed
to operate in Arctic areas off Norway, around the coast of Greenland, in the Canadian Arctic, in the Antarctic, in Atlantic and Pacific transit cruises, and possibly in the North-west and North-east passages to Alaska and the Bering Sea.
Aker Arctic managing director, Mikko
Nini, said that Aker Arctic had reached the finishing point in developing the concept design for the new ship. “Currently, they [Polar Cruise Enterprises] run to both the Antarctic and the Arctic, so the company needs a ship that will be very seaworthy and economical running in open water, and that means that the bow form needs to be only moderate in its ice-breaking capability. Te ship will feature a non-bulbous bow, with ice-breaking done on the basis of the double-acting principle [where the ship breaks ice moving astern, using azimuthing electric propulsion]. Te ship will thus feature a double bridge, as well as completely independent enginerooms.” Aker Arctic project manager, Maximillian
Vocke said that that the new ship would have capacity for 200 passengers, with 100 crew also onboard. Emphasising the need for safety considerations to be paramount, he said that all passengers would be able to avail themselves of 100% enclosed lifeboats. He said that the bow form had been
designed to move through broken ice, and that the plan was for the ship to be able to move astern through ice astern at 2knots, although this element of the design was yet to be finalised.
44 The Naval Architect February 2009
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