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New Icebreaker / Nuevo Rompehielos
New Antarctic Supply Ship
Nuevo buque de suministro antártico

On January 28, 1989, the ARA Bahía Paraíso (B-1), the nationally manufactured ship that supplied Argentine Antarctic bases, ran aground and sank. It occurred in front of the Palmer base in the United States on Anvers Island in the Palmer Archipelago in Antarctica after colliding with a rock while carrying a group of tourists. Since then, Argentina had no ship to carry out this task.

The only way to provide supplies to Argentines living in Antarctica was through the icebreaker ARA Almirante Irízar (Q-5) (RHAI), which although it belongs to the Argentine Navy since 1978, was manufactured in the Shipyards Wärtsilä in Helsinki of Finland. And it caught fire in 2007 with 241 crew members on board and only set sail again ten years later, in 2017, after a long repair.

In 2019 a group of students from the National Technological University (UTN) presented a project for a ship that could replace the Irizar. Esteban Escudero, Ian Carlos Alvarenga, Juan Cruz Tauterys, María Junco, Maximiliano Mavica, met with officials from the Argentine Navy, who gave them the characteristics that the boat they would need to carry fuel, food and other supplies to the Antarctic bases should have. Argentines. The issue is that the Irizar also carry out scientific work. They need a vessel that is only for supply purposes, as the Bahía Paraíso was.

Thus was born the idea of designing a ship that can fulfill all these tasks much more efficiently than the Irizar. And after completing the project, they presented it to the prestigious international competition “Dr. James Lisnyk”, organized by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME). The students of the Faculty developed the project for the competition, but from the beginning of the work their objective was that the design could be carried out, so they contacted the Argentine Navy.

“We met with the Navy, they told us that they had planned to build a supply ship that would support an icebreaker. This ship would go behind, for example, the Almirante Irízar Icebreaker and would give it support in the maintenance of the bases in the Antarctic Campaign ” , explained Eng. Agustín Ibarra, coordinator of the winning team.

The graduate of the Faculty considered that one of the ship's most outstanding characteristics is its LNG propulsion, “the propulsion it has is through liquefied natural gas. While it also sails on diesel, it also has the ability to sail on LNG, which produces less pollution and that is key to navigating a protected area like Antarctica. I think that this is an important differential, to highlight because it is something innovative, it is something new that not all boats have and for us it was a great challenge because it is something new and very modern ” , explained Ibarra.

This characteristic arose from the students of the Faculty “because we believe that, if the ship goes to Antarctica, which is a protected area, we have to continue protecting it. Ideally, all the boats that go have this type of propulsion. Although there are rules to comply with to navigate in Antarctica, it would be good to start raising awareness so that the ships are cleaner ”.

This is how these UTN students won the contest thanks to the innovative design of the ship. The graduate of the Faculty considered that one of the most outstanding characteristics of the ship is its propulsion to LNG, “the propulsion it has is through liquefied natural gas. While it also sails on Antarctic diesel, it also has the ability to sail on LNG, which produces less pollution and that is key to navigating a protected area like Antarctica. I think that this is an important differential, to highlight because it is something innovative, it is something new that not all boats have and for us it was a great challenge because it is something new and very modern ”, explained Ibarra.

This characteristic arose from the students of the Faculty “because we believe that, if the ship goes to Antarctica, which is a protected area, we have to continue protecting it . Ideally, all the boats that go have this type of propulsion . Although there are rules to comply with to navigate in Antarctica, it would be good to start raising awareness so that the ships are cleaner ”.

Ignacio Lozano, a Naval Engineering student at UTN Buenos Aires, is a member of ANTU, the student section that represents SNAME in Argentina, and participated in the development of the construction projects for a yacht and the logistics ship that won the competition. “It is a very great satisfaction, especially because of the possibility of encouraging the other to participate in other projects, generating that desire and that connection of teamwork. It is very interesting, not only for those who participated but also for the Department itself and the renown that this generates for the Faculty ”, he said.

The ship is 132 meters long, 22 meters wide, 12 meters long and 7.7 meters deep, has the ability to navigate polar waters, transporting cargo, personnel and supplies for Antarctic campaigns.