intend to go into polar waters sooner or later,” meaning they will eventually need a Polar Code certificate. For classification societies, this represents new business opportunities.


Search-and-Rescue Challenges Though more vessels are sailing to the Arctic and Antarctic, the amount of infrastructure onshore is not increasing in step. This is worrisome for search-and-rescue preparedness. In more remote reaches, several days in sub-zero temperatures and freezing water may pass before help arrives.


To prepare for this scenario, the Code mandates that life-saving equipment protect all persons onboard for a minimum of five days – no easy feat. In fact, Mejlænder- Larsen says that having adequate life-saving equipment onboard is the Code’s “main challenge.”


Two search-and-rescue expedition (SARex) tests conducted in April 2016 and 2017 in the Barents Sea off Spitsbergen at 81°N revealed that equipment suppliers still have their work cut out for them. In the first test, after 24 hours the standard Norsafe Miriam 8.5 lifeboat had to be abandoned due to uncomfortably cold temperatures inside. Even after upgrades were made, a Norsafe presentation from last year admitted that “It is still very unlikely you can survive the minimum five days in a raft.”


58 | The Report • June 2018 • Issue 84


That hasn’t stopped the company from striving to meet the challenge. Erik Mostert, Norsafe’s Project Manager, Technical - R/D, maintains that when it comes to ensuring a five-day survival time for passengers and crew, “Norsafe has found a clear way to attack this goal with a very detailed risk analysis of all phases of equipment, both stowed and during evacuation, survival and rescue.”


Some of the improvements Norsafe has made involve better ventilation, condensation, and even features that wouldn’t immediately come to mind like a curtain in front of the toilet to provide privacy. Norsafe is tackling other projects that push the envelope even further. Mostert hints, “One customer has even requested a 20-day survival time,” illustrating the extremes of today’s polar shipping industry.


Other critical solutions for safe polar shipping are emerging as well. Fassmer, a German company, is crafting lifeboats that meet the Code’s requirements and is witnessing strong demand from the cruise industry. Jens Hinsch, head of Fassmer’s Boat & Davit Division, says, “These lifeboats will be equipped with additional insulation and a fuel-based heating system, and loose equipment like water portions and food rations will be increased to have enough for at least five days.” In addition, the communication system will have batteries that last over this extended period to guide rescuers to the boat’s position.


Meanwhile, Torbjørn Svensen of Norway’s Hansen Protection AS, a global leader in sea-survival equipment, believes ships should also be equipped with standard survival suits and life jackets for everyone on board.


Ice Radar In Canada, a country with a long history of polar exploration, Rutter’s state-of-the-art sigma S6 Ice Navigator™ is focused on making sailing through icy waters safer. Although the Code does not require ice radar, it recommends it, and that has driven a lot of industry awareness.


“We’re getting a lot of requests from vessels we probably wouldn’t have had a touch on before,” says Sales Director Stephen Hale. “We’re doing work on ships going through the Arctic and Antarctic, from cruise, oil and gas, governmental ships and research vessels.” Still, he thinks the Code could be improved. For instance, while ice radar is recommended in shallow water, deep water is equally important.


Rutter has also been updating its system to automatically identify open water leads, an advance that will help the increasing number of ships navigating polar waters. “Ice radar in the past has been very much on the visualization side,” Hale explains, “so you can look at it and get an image. But that’s changed over the last year, and it’s now more about detection and


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