This has got to
be slow and likely slower than those two ice breakers. I think that until we produce a 500,000 ton
nuclear powered hovercraft to do this job, it will remain a very expensive
proposition. A hovercraft will lift the
ice causing it to literally be crushed.
Probably still slow enough but still awesomely efficient.
At least this
design does allow a much larger version to make real headway in the face of
seriously thick ice. Thus we have a
natural breaker design that can even tackle ridges otherwise impassable. Working in conjunction with the above
mentioned nuclear hovercraft cum ice breaker and it should be possible to
sustain Arctic shipping..
It also works
well with conventional ice breakers for exactly the same reason. They can get up on top of serious ridges and
break them up.
How a New
Russian Icebreaker Slices Sideways Through Frozen Sea
BY BIZ CARSON
1:40 PM
The Baltika isn’t adrift—it’s breaking
ice. Debuting in the Gulf of Finland in early 2014, the Russian-owned ship will
be the first to travel sideways through the frozen stuff. Although smaller than
a normal icebreaker, its oblique angle of attack lets it carve a larger path—wide
enough for commercial ships to follow. “You would conventionally need two
icebreakers to make the same channel,” project manager
Mika Willberg says. The vessel can even help with oil spills: The unique hull
guides oily water into a hatch, where a skimmer tank separates the oil from the
water. The Baltika can crack through ice about 2 feet thick, which
makes it suitable for conditions in the Baltic Sea. The ship’s patent holder,
Aker Arctic, has a larger ship in the works to cut trade routes through heavier
Arctic ice.
Ballast Inside, water and fuel are pumped
between tanks so the ship doesn’t roll over.
Roll and Crush Instead of smashing ice head-on,
the angled hull lets the ship roll over the ice and use its weight to do the
cracking.
Propulsion Three 360-degree thrusters let the
ship navigate sideways to attack the ice at a 30-degree angle. Wide
SwathThe Baltika cuts a 160-foot path through ice, allowing tankers to follow
in its wake.
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