Above: Captain Hanna Kujala and Captain Sid Hynes chat about new marine technology on the bridge of the Fennica.
What was touted a few years ago as one of the most powerful and efficient icebreakers in the world, recently spent four days in St. John’s harbour in September.
The Fennica is from Finland and will be working in waters off northern Baffin Island for several months a year over the next two years. Arctia Icebreaking Ltd., a state-owned company in Finland, operates a fleet of icebreakers and has a contract with Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation on Baffin Island to provide icebreaking and ice management services to allow for the shipment of ore from Baffin Island to southern destinations.
The Fennica is designed differently than most icebreakers. In fact, mariners who know about icebreaking say the 116 metre-long (380 feet) Fennica was way ahead of her time when she was built and in some cases, still is.
There are several reasons for that superiority. For starters, the hull width is 26 metres (85 feet) up front but that narrows to 23 metres (75 feet) just back from the bow. Being wider up front means ice is pushed farther away from the middle and back of the ship reducing friction between the hull and ice.
In addition to that, the forward part of the ship, from the waterline down, is covered with stainless steel which further reduces friction while also protecting that section of the hull from abrasion.
The Fennica is classified as a DNV Polar-10 icebreaker which means it can handle ice of nominal thickness, multi-year ice floes and even glacial ice.
One of the reasons for the great ice breaking efficiency is two large Aquamaster thrusters located aft. Those very powerful thrusters are rotational and can be angled in almost any direction making the ship extremely manoeuvrable and thus capable of breaking through extreme ice conditions. In fact, the ship can be moving ahead and the Aquamaster thrusters can be angled out from the hull.
All this capability and manoeuverability allows the Fennica to force ice away from the ship all the way to underneath the ice wall off to the sides. With three regular thrusters up front and the two back aft working in conjunction with all the other superb design characteristics, the Fennica opens a channel behind her, twice the width of the ship itself. That is important for companies that own large ships that are much wider than most icebreakers.
The Fennica was built in Finland in 1992 and has a Newfoundland and Labrador connection. Captain Sid Hynes, the executive chairman of Oceanex Ltd., conducted sea trials on the icebreaker when it was launched in 1993. Captain Hynes, a master mariner, spent six weeks in Finland during the trials and has fond memories of the experience. Coincidentally, Captain Hynes is also the current Honorary Consul for Finland.
Captain Hynes was invited onboard the Fennica on September 21 while the vessel was in St. John’s.
Captain Hanna Kujala, master of the icebreaker for the past 10 years, was aware of Captain Hynes’ connection to her ship from 30 years ago and brought a scrapbook of photos, newspaper clippings and other notes of interest written at the time the ship was launched and shortly thereafter. Captain Hanna, as she prefers to be called, also invited yours truly to join them onboard.
It was a sunny morning as Captain Hanna showed Captain Hynes her scrapbook as the two talked about a variety of technical things in the marine business while strolling casually around on the bridge of the icebreaker. The chat was relaxed and the view from the bridge was story-book perfect as the Fennica was docked at Pier 17 near the so-called Battery area of St. John’s looking east towards the famous Narrows located just in front of us.
Captain Hanna said more Finnish women are becoming interested in marine careers in recent years, especially at the officer level.
“That is true now more than in the past because now work schedules are set to have four weeks on and four weeks off rotation. A few years ago, you would go to sea, and you would never know when you were coming back,” she said.
For Captain Hanna, it was almost a foregone conclusion on the day she was born that she would be one of the women leading the way for other females in the industry. Her father was master of a large ship and instead of being faced with the unpleasant matter of being away from home and family for months on end, he had his wife and young daughter live onboard the vessel with him. Hanna says she learned to walk onboard the ship and lived there until she went to school. Those first years at sea were enjoyable for her; “in some ways exciting,” she says, and the rest, as they say, is history. “This is my life,” she smiled.
Captain Sid Hynes was obviously keen on sizing up the ship that he carried out sea trials on. This was the first time he had seen the vessel since then. He was very impressed with the icebreaker’s capabilities 30 years ago and says the Fennica is still in excellent condition.
“I see a ship that has been well cared for, both inside and out. Obviously there have been equipment upgrades but essentially, it’s the same well-founded ship,” he said.
Captain Hynes says the Finnish owners of the Fennica were progressive and became among the first in the world to implement several pieces of new marine technology. Perhaps just as importantly, they were among the first to consolidate much of the new technological advances. Instead of having several instruments available but all operating individually, they were among the first to have that technology interact or “talk to the other instruments” so to speak.
“At about that time, there were companies in Finland, Norway and Sweden that came together to standardize [marine] communication protocols. That took a lot of time and I see some of that equipment is still onboard today. This ship was a leader,” he said.
Meanwhile, Captain Hynes says his role in conducting sea trials on the Fennica may have had something to do with being asked to be Finland’s Honorary Consul.
“I had a call from the Ambassador in Ottawa [about the position] and while we were talking, he made several references to it so I’m assuming that was part of it.”
Captain Hynes said his role as consul involves matters such as the job he was doing at that very moment with an icebreaking company from Finland and a Canadian mining company.
“It’s about introducing potential business partners so they can work together to bring value to each other,” he said.
Meanwhile, Captain Hanna Kujala said that she and the crewmembers of the Fennica will be working off northern Baffin Island probably until the middle of November and they will be back again in 2024.
