Seaspan Begins Construction On Heavy Polar Icebreaker

May 6, 2025 - one year ago

Seaspan Shipyards has announced it has officially cut steel on the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) heavy polar icebreaker, signifying the start of construction on one of the most advanced conventional polar icebreakers ever to be built.

Seaspan Begins Construction On Heavy Polar Icebreaker — *Polar icebreaker rendering*

This marks the first time a heavy polar icebreaker has been built in Canada in more than 60 years, and it will play a critical role in protecting our sovereignty for decades to come.

Measuring 158 metres long and 28 metres wide, Seaspan’s polar icebreaker will be incredibly complex, designed to operate self-sufficiently in the high-Arctic year-round. It will play a critical role in enabling the Canadian Coast Guard to transit and operate on more than 162,000 km of Arctic coastline.

“Today’s milestone caps off an incredibly busy 10-month period for Seaspan, involving two first-of-class ship launches and the start of construction on this new world-class polar icebreaker,” stated John McCarthy, CEO, Seaspan Shipyards. “The National Shipbuilding Strategy is showing that a made-in-Canada approach is not only possible, it is imperative to Canada’s security and sovereignty. We must continue to design and build ships here at home, to ensure that the experience, skills, and knowledge built through the NSS will be sustained. Seaspan looks forward to delivering this new polar icebreaker to the Canadian Coast Guard, and to building more Polar Class vessels for Canada and its allies.”

The capabilities of this Polar Class 2 icebreaker will help sustain a 12-month presence in Canada’s North in support of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty, high-Arctic science (including climate change research), Indigenous Peoples and other northern communities, and the ability to respond to major maritime emergencies including search and rescue. It will be able to accommodate up to 100 personnel, and, as one of the only Polar Class 2 vessels in the world, will be able to operate farther north, in more difficult ice conditions and for longer periods than any icebreaker in Canada to date.

This built-in-Canada ship will be the seventh vessel designed and built by Seaspan under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). It will also be the fifth Polar Class vessel to be built for the CCG, and one of up to 21 icebreaking vessels overall that Seaspan is constructing.

In January 2024, Seaspan completed construction of a polar Prototype Block to ensure preparedness to build this highly-advanced vessel, which requires steel that is twice as thick in some areas, while also being less malleable, as the steel Seaspan has used for the other ships built under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.

As the only shipyard currently building polar icebreakers in Canada, Seaspan looks forward to supporting the Canadian Coast Guard by building this large, multi-mission vessel, and through the design and construction of any vessels Canada and its ICE Pact partners need now, or in the future.

Quick Facts

The Polar Icebreaker will be 158 metres long and 28 metres wide, with a design displacement of 26,036t.
Highlights of key design features, include:
IACS Polar Class 2 (PC2) Heavy Icebreaker
More than 40MW of installed power
Ice-classed azimuthing propulsion system
Complex, multi-role mission capability
Scientific Laboratories
Moon Pool (to allow for safe deployment of equipment from within the ship)
Helicopter flight deck and Hangar
Vehicle Garage and future Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) capability

Seaspan has already gained significant experience designing and building Polar Class vessels including three Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels which are now in service with the Canadian Coast Guard; an Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel that will be delivered to the CCG in the coming months; and up to sixteen Multi-Purpose Icebreakers (also Polar Class) that is currently in Construction Engineering.

Seaspan is one of the most modern shipyards in North America, following its privately funded $200M+ shipyard modernization, development of a skilled workforce and state-of-the-art, purpose-built infrastructure to deliver large, complex vessels.

Under the NSS, Seaspan has become a major economic and job creation engine. According to an economic analysis conducted by Deloitte, Seaspan has contributed $5.7 billion to Canada’s GDP since 2012, while also creating or sustaining more than 7,000 jobs annually.

Source: Seaspan