Submission + - Radical new icebreaker will travel through the ice sideways (gizmag.com) 1
cylonlover writes: Given that icebreakers clear a path for other ships by traveling through the ice head-on (or sometimes butt-on), then in order for one of them to clear a wider path, it would have to be wider and thus larger overall ... right? Well, Finland’s Arctech Helsinki Shipyard is taking a different, more efficient approach. It’s in the process of building an asymmetric-hulled icebreaker that can increase its frontal area, by making its way through the ice at an angle of up to 30 degrees.
More information about ice breaking (Score:2)
They have a whole website about the current ice breaking situation, but of course, currently there is no ice:
http://baltice.org/ [baltice.org]
In this report of the winter between 2011 and 2012 the thickest ice in the Gulf of Finland was 50cm near St. Petersburg:
http://portal.liikennevirasto.fi/sivu/www/baltice/BIM_Joint_Annual__2011__2012-1.pdf [liikennevirasto.fi]