The Ice Maiden will be the first dynamically positioned multisupport construction vessel capable of working anywhere in the world, according to the vessel owner C&M Group.
Formerly the vessel was the 14,000-tonne Russian class icebreaker MV Paardeberg. The 167 m long vessel has a 23-m beam, two 25-tonne capacity cranes, and a helideck with refueling facilities for EH101 helicopters. Built in 1991, C&M purchased the vessel in December 2006.
The $100 million vessel conversion is taking place at the Atlantic Marine Shipyard in Mobile, Ala. The yard currently is installing new topsides with accommodations for 400 people in single rooms (Fig. 1).
C&M says the vessel will be the first monohull flotel to work in the North Sea when it goes on charter later this year, and it expects the vessel with its icebreaking capabilities will also find work in areas such as above the Arctic Circle and off Sakhalin Island. With its 450-mm thick hull, vessel specifications indicate that the vessel can cut through 1.2-m thick ice plus 0.2-m thick snow at 1.5 knots.
C&M notes that the vessel provides highly sophisticated communications, fiber optics, digital closed-circuit television, passenger on-board control systems, and special low-temperature cabling.
For dynamic positioning, the vessel will have three sets of thrusters: two 3-Mw azimuths, four 2-Mw azimuths nonretractable, and two 1.4-Mw tunnel (Fig. 2).