Construction Begins on Advanced Polar Icebreaker

Canadian shipbuilding firm Seaspan has announced that it has begun construction on the Canadian Coastguard’s new heavy polar icebreaker, marking the first time in 60 years that a heavy polar icebreaker has been built in Canada. 

Measuring 158 metres long and 28 metres wide, with a design displacement of 26,036t, the IACS Polar Class 2 (PC2) heavy icebreaker will feature more than 40MW of installed power, an ice-classed azimuthing propulsion system, scientific laboratories, a helicopter flight deck and hangar, and remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) capability. 

The vessel will be designed to operate self-sufficiently in the high-Arctic region on a year-round basis. It is expected that the vessel will support high-Arctic science operations (including climate change research), Indigenous Peoples and other northern communities, and respond to major maritime emergencies including search and rescue operations. 

Commenting on the commencement of construction, John McCarthy, CEO of Seaspan said: 

“Today’s milestone caps off an incredibly busy 10-month period for Seaspan, involving two first-of-class ship launches and the start of construction on this new world-class polar icebreaker. 

The National Shipbuilding Strategy is showing that a made-in-Canada approach is not only possible, it is imperative to Canada’s security and sovereignty. We must continue to design and build ships here at home, to ensure that the experience, skills, and knowledge built through the NSS will be sustained. Seaspan looks forward to delivering this new polar icebreaker to the Canadian Coast Guard, and to building more Polar Class vessels for Canada and its allies”.

The vessel will be the seventh ship designed and built by Seaspan under the National Shipbuilding Strategy. It will also be the fifth Polar Class vessel to be built for the Canadian Coast Guard, and is one of 21 ice breaking vessels overall that Seaspan is scheduled to build. 

Amongst the other Polar Class vessels previously constructed by Seaspan include three offshore fisheries science vessels, an offshore oceanographic science vessel, and a number of multipurpose icebreakers. 

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