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.
Arctech refers to the ship as “Icebreaking rescue vessel NB 508,” although according to a report in New Scientist, it’s also known as the Baltika. It’s being built for the Russian Ministry of Transport, and will be used not only for icebreaking, but also for rescue and oil spill cleanup duties in the Gulf of Finland.
