Kontio (icebreaker)

Icebreaker Kontio in use before Kemi

1A Super

160 t

IMO number:. 8518120

The Kontio ( Finnish for bear) is a Finnish icebreaker with home port of Helsinki, which was built in 1987 at the Wärtsilä shipyard in Helsinki. The Kontio is 99.0 m long and 24.2 m wide with a draft of 8 m. With an output of 15,000 kW, provided by two Wärtsilä 16V32 - diesel engines, 18.5 knots can be achieved. The ship has a displacement of 9,000 tons.

The Kontio and her sister ship Otso are generally used as the first Finnish icebreaker fleet. Their field of application is the Gulf of Bothnia. Owner of the ship is the Arctia Shipping OY. It is the successor of the Finnish Shipping Enterprise ( Finstaship ).

Icebreaker technology

Kontio has the classic, running at a flat angle the bow of an icebreaker. The double screw and rudder system is reinforced extra for navigation in ice. The propeller back to the outside to get as little contact with ice floes. To increase the performance icebreaker, the ship possesses a Airbubblingsystem. It is pumped down to the horizon air into the water. The rising bubbles create the hull a raging Luft-/Wasserstrom, which greatly reduces the friction between the hull and ice. Furthermore, to the bow and stern trim tanks. During start-up of ice barriers, the bow can be lifted out of the water, and then complain it through ballast water and to break the ice. The freezing in the ice is prevented by the Krängungsanlage. 630 tons of water can be pumped back and forth in 40 seconds, whereby a heeling angle of 7 ° is formed.

Conversions

In order to better maneuverability of a thruster with 2.4 meters in diameter, was installed later. Previously used to that a Airbubblingsystem, which was turned on only one side. At the Kontio the Eutelsat VSAT satellite communication system and a Selesmar -X -band radar was installed in 2002. Since 2010, the ship is also used as an oil spill response vessel. The European Agency for Maritime Safety ( engl. European Maritime Safety Agency, EMSA short ) chartered the icebreaker for this purpose.