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Radical New Icebreaker Will Travel Through the Ice Sideways

Posted by samzenpus on from the going-sideways dept.

cylonlover writes "Given that icebreakers clear a path for other ships by traveling through the ice head-on (or sometimes butt-on), then in order for one of them to clear a wider path, it would have to be wider and thus larger overall ... right? Well, Finland's Arctech Helsinki Shipyard is taking a different, more efficient approach. It's in the process of building an asymmetric-hulled icebreaker that can increase its frontal area, by making its way through the ice at an angle of up to 30 degrees."

2 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. been working on it for some time by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fwiw, the Finns have been researching this idea for a while now; interesting to see it actually being built. Here is a 1999 paper [pdf] from one of Arctech Helsinki's parent companies studying the feasibility of such a design, which has some good information on the details.

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  2. Re:Icebreakers work from above by pijokela · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's meant for the Gulf of Finland near St. Petersburg. A PDF report at http://www.baltice.org/ shows that the thickest ice during 2011-2012 winter was 50cm.

    It's true that as Russia is more and more interested in exploiting the arctic sea, they will need bigger things.