The world's first double acting, shallow-draught icebreaking vessel, built by Dutch shipyard Royal Niestern Sander for the Russian companies Mercury Sakhalin and Pola, will be fitted with Steerprop's azimuth units as its main propulsion and steering system.
The walk-to-work vessel will operate all year round in harsh ice conditions, transferring service technicians and equipment to and from offshore platforms from Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.
The contract includes two Steerprop SP 60 PULL ARC propulsors with an input power of 2,200 kW each. These are designed for use in arctic conditions and have multiple layers of redundancies.
Also included in the order is the Steerprop propulsion control system and Steerprop Care condition monitoring system.
The 76- by 14-metre vessel will conform to Bureau Veritas' icebreaker 5 ice class rules and will be delivered in 2021.