5. Experimental Voyage through Northern Sea Route
5.1 Introduction
Although INSROP conducted extensive studies to evaluate the viability of the NSR, most of its projects consisted of "desk-work," such as the preparation and organization of databases. For its part, SOF conducted its own exclusive R&D project to design the icebreaking cargo vessels optimized for NSR shipping, based on extensive model tests. Model tests and sufficient environmental data on the operation route are vital under current procedure to design the optimum hull form for given specifications of a ship, for which excellent navigational performance can be expected in actual service on the route. In any case of development of a new sea lane, however, practical experience in navigation, or at least in experimental voyages, in the lane are indispensable to confirm the ship performance and find realistic solutions to unpredicted problems encountered in the actual operation. Extremely few voyages in the NSR have been conducted by vessels with non-Russian flags, and even those were under the command of Russian seamen. With these reasons in mind, SOF conducted an experimental voyage through the NSR in the summer of 1995, with backing from The Nippon Foundation. The objectives of this experimental voyage were to perform a comprehensive assessment of the conditions under which NSR navigation would take place, through actual sailing experience in the NSR, to obtain quantitative data of overall ship performance, and to evaluate the satellite-base ice information system as well. The information gathered must then form the basis for future R&D activities to ensure safe and efficient NSR operations.
The first Western-funded commercial voyage through the NSR since Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev declared the region open to the international shipping on October 1, 1987 (see Section 2.2) was the voyage of the Tiksi, an SA-15 class icebreaking cargo ship, sister ship of the Kandalaksha (see Section 4.1.2 (1)), chartered by the Hamburg shipping firm Detlef von Apen. The Tiksi voyaged from Hamburg to the Japanese port of Chiba, laden with a 14,109t cargo of metal (Matyushenko, 1992). Departing the port of Hamburg on July 12, 1989, the Tiksi reached Chiba on August 4. This ship traversed the NSR from Europe to the Far East several times thereafter, in the summer months from July to October. In 1991, the French observation ship L'Astrolabe became the first Western flag ship to complete the entire voyage through the NSR, crossing the region from west to east. Unlike the Tiksi, however, L'Astrolabe was a small vessel of only 950 t, and its voyage seemed more of a demonstration than a commercial undertaking. After the 1995 SOF test described above, the Finnish ship Uikku left port in the fall of 1997 carrying a cargo of diesel oil to become the first Western freighter to navigate the NSR as far as the port of Provideniya (Saavala, 1999). Other recent attempts using non-Russian vessels have yielded valuable results as well, with ships hailing from Latvia, Finland and Germany.
Although the SOF adopted a Russian vessel in the experimental voyage, the test journey provided an opportunity for an international team of researchers, composed of specialists and experienced academics from a wide range of disciplines, to join a commercial voyage on a ship laden with cargo, and to objectively evaluate the voyage from various aspects. The SOF team gathered valuable basic data on the natural environment of the NSR and the ship performance in ice-covered waters.
5.2 Test Planning
The ship selected for the experimental voyage was an icebreaking cargo ship of the SA-15 class (also called Norilsk class, after the name of the first ship in the series), Russia's premier class of icebreaking cargo vessels. The SOF decided to conduct a test voyage from Japan to Europe, laden with cargo. As described in Section 4.3.2, the Russian government normally must be notified four months in advance of any planned voyages through the NSR, according to the Russian government publication "Guide to Navigating through the Northern Sea Route."
