Damen joins the ice party with new Arctic tug

Due to the 100 m long AMTSV being ice-strengthened, the vessel’s centre of gravity is low enough to allow for large LNG tanks to be placed on top of the superstructure, enabling the vessel to be fully LNG-powered, running on dual-fuel engines.

The design can operate in the Barents Sea year round and in the Baffin Bay and Beaufort Sea for 8 months, with the accommodation capable of keeping the temperature above zero degrees indoors with an outside temperature of -55 degrees.

Azipod technology allows the double-acting design to use its icebreaking stern to travel through ice stern-first. The vessel can then move through open water bow-first, with no loss of hydrodynamic efficiency. The design also includes a 300 tone double-acting winch, enabling the AMTSV to tow in both directions.

The vessel was designed in co-operation with students from the Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands, and Aalto University in Helsinki, along with DNV, Dutch hydrodynamics and nautical research institute Marin.

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