Photo credit: Seaspan Shipyards
North Vancouver-based Seaspan Shipyards (Seaspan) has secured a contract to build one of the Canadian Coast Guard’s (CCG) new heavy polar icebreakers. The government of Canada reported the value of the contract at $3.15-bn contract (before tax) to Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards for the construction of one of CCG’s future polar icebreakers under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS).
With the contract now in place, Seaspan reports it is ready to cut steel on this ship and begin full-rate construction.
The polar icebreaker will be built entirely in Canada at Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards, located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, supporting more than 1,000 local shipbuilders and a broad Canadian supply chain of over 800 Canadian companies.
As disclosed, it will be one of only a handful of Polar Class 2 ships in operation and will allow for the CCG to operate self-sufficiently year-round in the high-Arctic, down to temperatures at -50°C.
Designed with advanced capabilities, the new polar icebreaker will be the seventh vessel designed and built by Seaspan under the NSS.
It will also be the fifth Polar Class vessel to be built for the CCG, and one of up to 21 icebreaking vessels overall that Seaspan is constructing.
The polar icebreaker will be 158 metres long and 28 metres wide, with a design displacement of 26,036t and an ice-classed azimuthing propulsion system.
“Today’s contract signing is the next step in our journey of fulfilling the vision of the National Shipbuilding Strategy, which is to build ships for Canada, in Canada, by Canadians. The NSS is demonstrating that a made-in-Canada approach is not only possible, but also imperative to our security and sovereignty. We look forward to starting construction on this ship next month, and to building more Polar Class vessels for Canada and our Ice Pact partners,” said John McCarthy, CEO Seaspan Shipyards.
The IACS polar class 2 (PC2) heavy icebreaker will feature advanced capabilities including more than 40MW of installed power, complex multi-role mission capability, scientific laboratories, moon pool (to allow for safe deployment of equipment from within the ship), helicopter flight deck and hangar, vehicle garage and future remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) capability.
The company completed the functional design of the polar icebreaker in 2024, prior to the start of construction, collaborating with Finnish companies who have extensive experience in designing Arctic-going vessels.
The official start of construction for this new heavy polar icebreaker is scheduled for April 2025.
Seaspan has three now offshore fisheries science vessels in service with the CCG. An offshore oceanographic science vessel will be delivered to the CCG in the coming months, whilst a class of up sixteen multi-purpose icebreaking vessels (also Polar class) is currently in construction engineering.
