Le Commandant Charcot – from dream to icebreaking reality
A Polar Class 2 cruise ship that blends the strength of an icebreaker with the comfort of a luxury liner, charting new courses…
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LE COMMANDANT CHARCOT
Type of vessel:
Cruise Ship
Year:
2018
Customer:
Ponant
Builder:
Vard
Owner:
Ponant
Type of work done:
Concept and Basic Design, Hull Opimization, Ice Model Tests, Ice Load Monitoring System
Length x Breadth:
150.0 m x 28.0 m
Propulsion:
2 × 17 MW
Ice class:
Polar Class 2
What began as a dream – to take passengers safely to the North Pole – has become a remarkable reality. Le Commandant Charcot is not just a ship, but a symbol of vision, collaboration, and technical mastery. She is the first of her kind: a Polar Class 2 cruise ship that blends the strength of an icebreaker with the comfort of a luxury liner, charting new courses in some of the most remote regions on Earth.
The very first luxury icebreaking cruise vessel with LNG propulsion.
Le Commandant Charcot features a modern Polar Class 2 icebreaking hull, which combines smooth icebreaking ahead in up to 2.5-metre-thick multiyear ice, and astern in severe ice conditions such as heavy ice ridges using the Double Acting Ship (DAS™) principle. The vessel’s performance is comparable to existing polar icebreakers, but with lower ice resistance ensuring better fuel economy.
Railotech (formerly Aker Arctic) developed the vessel concept together with Stirling Design International and the luxury expedition cruise company Ponant.
Le Commandant Charcot was built by Vard with the steel hull constructed in Romania, while final outfitting and commissioning were done in Norway. The vessel was delivered in July 2021.
