The Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB), the general lighthouse and navigation aids authority responsible for Scotland and the Isle of Man, has formally named its newest maintenance vessel.
The 70-metre Pole Star was designed by Spanish naval architecture firm Seaplace and Danish counterpart OSK Design and built by Spanish shipyard Astilleros Gondán. She has replaced an earlier, similarly named vessel that had served the NLB for over 20 years.
Pole Star’s main area of operation encompasses UK and Irish waters, though she is also capable of transiting to European and Scandinavian ports as well as operating worldwide in warm and temperate conditions.
The vessel uses a hybrid-electric propulsion setup combining conventional diesel-mechanical power with a battery system. The propulsion drives fixed-pitch propellers housed in azimuthing thrusters to deliver a speed of 14 knots and a bollard pull of 60 tonnes.
The DP2-capable vessel is also equipped for first response firefighting, emergency towing, and integrating ROV/AUV operations thanks to her dedicated deck space and power supply. Her operational profiles range from short missions to longer deployments lasting up to 30 days at sea, often in rough conditions.
The working deck is fully arranged for buoy handling operations and for supporting the vessel’s wider mission profile.
The main equipment includes a central offshore knuckle boom crane for buoy handling, a dedicated knuckle boom crane for launching and recovering a small workboat, a chain/towing winch, a centre-line vertical chain roller, side rollers, chain stoppers, bulwark doors on both sides, tugger winches, mooring capstans, and removable towing guides.