Multipurpose Icebreaker Botnica

Design of botnica

Shortly after the completion of the successful multipurpose icebreakers Fennica and Nordica, the Finnish Maritime Administration ordered a concept for the next icebreaker from ILS Oy. It was also going to be a multipurpose icebreaker, yet slightly different than its predecessors.

Together with the Norwegian Ugland AS, we concluded in a smaller design. The vessel would have good open water characteristics, and its duties would be demanding maintenance and repair work of boreholes.  An explosion-resistant firewall had to be installed between the ship’s working deck and the living and control rooms, and the ship’s dynamic positioning had to be top-class in terms of accuracy, reliability and redundancy. Well intervention was added to the vessel’s operational profile, for which the Norwegian safety authorities and the classification society DNV set very strict requirements.

The requirement for bollard pull was not decisive in open water use, but had to meet the demands of icebreaking. The ship was designed for Gulf of Finland conditions, so the first Azipod type azimuthing thrusters were chosen for it. The ship’s propulsion power was chosen to be 10 MW, which was suitable for an icebreaker in the Gulf of Finland. Botnica became, according to the memos of Finnish Maritime Administration’s shipping advisor, Mr. Lennart Hagelstam, and Chief Engineer, Mr. Arjo Harjula, a well-optimized design for winter and summer use: The best of all three multi-purpose breakers!

Aker Finnyards Oy from Rauma, which built the previous multipurpose icebreakers, was chosen as the builder of Botnica, and the ship was delivered in 1998. The ship was sold to TS-Shipping, owned by the port of Tallinn, in 2012, and after the sale, it has participated in several international operations under the Estonian flag during the summers.