USCG Icebreakers to Sport Finnish Technology
The new icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard being built at Marinette Marine Corp. will feature some of the world's most advanced icebreaking features, complements of Finland. Marinette Marine, a division of Manitowac Marine Group, has contracted with a pair of Kvaerner Masa-Yards Group Companies — Kvaerner Masa Marine (KMM) and Masa-Yards Arctic Technology Center (MARC) — to provide ice breaking consulting services and model testing for the new USCG Great Lakes Icebreaker Mackinaw. Named in honor of the heavy icebreaker that it is replacing, Mackinaw will be a multi-mission vessel, measuring 240 x 60 ft. (73 x 18.3 m), and it will displace 3,500 tons. The ship will break ice to keep the Great Lakes shipping lanes open in the winter and service aids to navigation in summer.
ABB to Deliver Azipod Propulsion System
ABB has been awarded a contract by Marinette Marine Corporation, a division of Manitowac Marine Group to supply electric propulsion drives and Azipod propulsion systems and to act as the engine room single-system integrator for a new Great Lakes Icebreaker design. Marinette Marine will deliver the vessel for the U.S. Coast Guard in October 2005. The vessel will be equipped with Two Azipod units with variable speed electric drive providing full torque to the propeller motor from zero to nominal speed in both directions, which is report to enhance the vessel’s operability in heavy ice conditions. The vessel’s main area of operation will be the Great Lakes where it will break ice during the winter and operate as a waterway service (buoy tender) vessel during open water season.
