The new Chilean-built “Almirante Viel” icebreaker completed her first week of sea testing on Friday, it was reported in Santiago.
Icebreaker HMS Protector sailed closer to the North Pole than any other Royal Navy ship in history on her first patrol of the Arctic. The survey and research ship crunched her way through polar ice to within 1,050 kilometres of the top of the world as she gathered data about the ocean and environment.
The HMS Protector, the only Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, has returned to sea after a £14m revamp to improve her ability to work in Antarctica. Extra weight was added to the vessel during the work has improved her ice-breaking capability, the Navy said.
Construction of the Chilean Navy's new polar ship at the ASMAR Talcahuano Shipyard is 35% advanced according to official information. The ship, being built under the name of Antarctica I project, will replace the Navy's current icebreaker Oscar Viel. She will perform logistic support activities for Antarctic operators, both domestic and foreign, performing tasks such as transporting people and materials, removing garbage and providing food and fuel.
According to reports in the Argentine media next November the Australian flagged icebreaker Aurora Australis will be docking in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, and then head for Buenos Aires where, allegedly, she will be incorporated to the Argentine navy fleet and will be participating next to ARA Almirante Irizar in the 2020/21 Antarctica campaign.
One of the top 50 richest Russians, banker Oleg Tinkov, wants to present what he calls a first private icebreaker to the public next year, before the €100 million vessel sets sail to the Antarctic among other destinations.
Having spent last Antarctic summer celebrating the deeds of one British polar hero, the crew of Royal Navy icebreaker HMS Protector have opened the 2016-17 survey season honoring his rival. A century after Sir Ernest Shackleton landed at King Haakon Bay on South Georgia in a makeshift lifeboat – the James Caird – Protector entered the same fjord and sent her hi-tech survey launch – the James Caird IV – close to the identical spot.
Argentina's Antarctic exploration flagship icebreaker Almirante Irizar is ready for the sea tests after nine years under repairs in the government's defense shipyard and hundreds of millions of dollars, but an unexpected last minute muddy impediment has surfaced.
Finland-based Arctech Helsinki Shipyard has been contracted to build three icebreaking stand-by vessels for Russian shipping company Sovcomflot, for a total cost of 380 million dollars.
The Argentine government is putting pressure on contractors so that the Navy's flagship icebreaker Almirante Irizar, partially destroyed by fire in 2007, can begin sea trials later this year. However over-costs and mismanagement of the funds invested, estimated at over 650 million dollars, could have purchased a new vessel of three second hand according to critics in Congress.