Bothnian Bay News

Aker Arctic Technology Inc announced Tuesday it has signed a contract with the Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA) and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (FTIA) to develop new icebreakers to meet new challenges in Baltic Sea escort operations.The “next generation” icebreaker design will be capable of assisting the larger merchant ships entering Finnish and Swedish ports, incorporate latest environmental technologies and be ready for future fossil-free fuels, the Finnish engineering firm said. “Our foreign trade and competitiveness are based on year-round security of supply.

The icebreaking services provider Arctia’s icebreaker Kontio departed the icebreaker base in Helsinki as the Finnish icebreaking season’s second icebreaker on Saturday 29 December 2018.The vessel headed towards its initial operation area near Oulu and Raahe, where it will begin assisting vessels. Icebreaker Otso, that departed on 25 December, already assists vessels in the Bothnian Bay.“There is already ice coverage in the northernmost part of the Bothnian Bay as well as near Oulu. So far the ice situation has been easy, but as temperatures keep dropping further below zero, more ice will form fast. Some forecasts predict a winter colder than average.

The Finnish icebreaking season officially kicked off on Tuesday evening with the first icebreaker deployment.Arctia’s converted polar icebreaker Otso departed the icebreaker base in Helsinki at 6 p.m. local time toward its initial operation area to keep open the fairways to Tornio, Kemi and Oulu. The vessel is expected to reach the area before noon on Thursday.According to the latest ice report by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, ice in the Bay of Bothnia is drifting toward northeast. In the northern Bay of Bothnia's inner archipelago there is 10-20 cm thick fast ice.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered icebreaker Polaris has left its home base in Helsinki on Tuesday to become the third Finnish icebreaker active in this year’s icebreaking season. The nearly 110-meter-long Polaris is the world’s first LNG powered icebreaker, running on both LNG and marine diesel. The vessel will head to Tahkoluoto, Pori, to bunker LNG before joining fellow icebreakers Kontio and Otso which departed on December 18, 2017 and January 9 respectively. “The crew is very excited to begin icebreaking duty after a long summer and autumn,” said Pasi Järvelin, master of IB Polaris.

Polaris, the newest icebreaker of the Finnish icebreaking service company Arctia, set out from Katajanokka, Helsinki, for icebreaking duty in the Bothnian Bay and arrived January 10 for bunkering at the Skangas liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Pori, where the vessel received approximately 700 m3 of LNG. “Polaris arrived via Utö through the Turku Archipelago to the Skangas LNG terminal in the Tahkoluoto harbor in Pori. The Pori terminal is located by a deep and wide fairway, so it was easy to access and we kept on schedule.