After a delay of nearly four months, the Sysselmannen´s new ship Polarsyssel could be named and officially taken into service on Saturday, September 20th. The ceremony was held at the ‘Gammelkaia’ in Longyearbyen in the presence of the Norwegian Minister of Justice Anders Amundsen.
The Polarsyssel replaces the Nordsyssel which in September last year, after it´s eleventh season in service for the Sysselmannen, left Spitsbergen for the last time. To compensate the new ship´s delay the beginning of this year´s season, starting in May, was run by a ship of the Icelandic coastguard called Tyr.
Unlike former ships of the Sysselmannen, the new Polarsyssel was custom-built for service in Spitsbergen and is equipped for the special requirements of the Sysselmannen. The vessel´s main tasks will be in the fields of rescue operations, environmental monitoring and the prevention of oil pollution.
The Polarsyssel is equipped with a helicopter deck, a winch to tow other vessels, infrared and optic cameras to find persons or leaking oil, water cannons to fight fire, a medical room, two work-boats which can be launched quickly and the facilities for an external power supply to save fuel when the ship lies at the pier in Longyearbyen. With the Polarsyssel a ship with the ice class 1B was chosen, differing from its antecessor ‘Nordsyssel’ which had the highest ice class 1A Super. The Polarsyssel has a crew of 9 persons, cabin space for 21 passengers and a capacity for 35 day-passengers.
The hull was built in Turkey and the ship was then mounted and equipped in the Havyard shipyard in the Norwegian town Leirvik. She is leased out to the Sysselmannen by the shipping company Remøy Management. Owner of the vessel is the Icelandic company Fafnir Offshore. The contract for using the Polarsyssel ends in 2020 for the time being. After this, the Sysselmannen has the option to renew it until 2024. The costs for using the ship will be 329 million Norwegian Kroner in the first ten years. Though, each season the Polarsyssel will only stay in Spitsbergen for six months, from May to November. During winter time it will serve on other occasions for example as a supply vessel for the offshore oil industry.
The new Polarsyssel will probably not win beauty contests, but she is an extremely functional ship (Foto: Cemreshipyard.com).