Murmansk Branch News

Icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn returns to the seaport of Murmansk

Icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn has returned to the seaport of Murmansk after a 91-day voyage in the Franz Josef Land archipelago area.

From March 2015 the icebreaker has been providing icebreaker support of vessels on their way to the islands of Alexandra Land of the Franz Josef Land Archipelago. Icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn and its crew shave uccessfully completed its tasks in full compliance with the terms of the contract of affreightment.

It has been the second voyage of the icebreaker in the current year, previously the icebreaker was providing assistance to vessels, heading to the seaport of Sabetta, including icebreaker support in the port water area.

From the beginning of 2015 the icebreaker has escorted 33 vessels and transported on board more than 300 passengers. The total length of the icebreaker navigation route amounted to more than 11.4 thousand sea miles, where navigation in ice was over 8.7 thousand sea miles, including the total length of the ice escorts, amounted to 7.8 thousand miles.

The icebreaker will stay approximately until the end of July 2015. After that the vessel will head to the shipyard in St. Petersburg for planned maintenance and inspection in preparation for winter season of operation in 2016.

For reference:
Kapitan Dranitsyn is a diesel-powered icebreaker of KM(*) LL3[2] AUT2 class with the capacity of 24 000 HP and displacement of 12 288 tonnes. Built in the shipyard “Wärtsilä” (Finland) in 1980. The icebreaker is highly demanded by Russian and foreign freighters for provision of variety of activities in the Arctic and Antarctic. In the period of winter navigation, the vessel provides vessel escort to the freezing ports of the Russian Federation. More detailed information on terms and conditions of the Murmansk Branch icebreaking services with use of icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn is available in the section “Icebreaking services of the Murmansk Branch”