First for Hansa Heavy Lift on Northern Sea Route

The cranes, 61m high and 92m wide, could not be loaded on deck owing to their high centre of gravity and so the 19,413dwt HHL Valparaiso, built in 2010, sailed open-hatch with the cranes shipped partly below and partly above deck.
This is the first time that any ship has completed the Northern Sea Route with open hatches. But Hansa Heavy Lift’s commercial manager Gleb Faldin explained that the voyage through northern waters was the only viable option to ensure that the cranes were delivered in time.
“In the Arctic there is no room for mistakes,” he said. “During the passage, the vessel has limited connection and only a few points of shelter. It is important to understand the legal framework to navigate the Northern Sea Route, to plan carefully, to be prepared for the unexpected, and most importantly to have the right team on board the vessel and in the office,” he added.
A two-month delay in the cargo being ready for shipment added to the challenges. Originally, the cranes were to have been shipped on board Hansa Heavy Lift’s HHL Tokyo, but in order to complete the mission before the route became impassable due to ice cover at the end of November, the HHL Valaparaiso was repositioned via the Northern Sea Route from Qingdao in China to St Petersburg where the cranes were loaded prior to the ship sailing for Vostochny.
The HHL Valparaiso holds Ice Class E3 which is equivalent to Russian Arc.4 (Finnish-Swedish Ice Class 1A. All of the company’s ships can sail in waters with ice cover of up to 0.8m.