By
Jon Ingleton |
Foreship has launched a new consulting service to support ship owners and managers following the adoption of the Polar Code in January 2017.
“If you want to sail inside 60 degrees North or South you need a Polar-class ship,” says Markus Aarnio, chairman of Foreship. “[The Polar Code] is a goal-based rule with no clear regulations to follow but you have to make an operational assessment.”
This is where the Foreship service comes into play. The company will conduct an operational assessment for cruise and ferry owners to follow so that they can operate safely in polar waters and be fully compliant with the Polar Code, SOLAS and MARPOL requirements.
“We are always looking at the market and new legislation to analyse the needs of the owner and this is just one part of the service,” says Aarnio. “Polar Code is interesting as there are no Polar Code ships yet so nobody knows how they will be built and classification interpretations will certainly be different. There can be surprises because there are some interpretation questions but we have to be careful.”
Foreship has already received a good number of enquiries about the service from owners who are planning to extend their operations into the expedition market.