A contract has been signed by the Icelandic Coast Guard to acquire a platform support vessel built in 2010, which will become Coast Guard vessel Freyja.
Adding Freyja to the Coast Guard’s current vessel Thór will provide a significant boost the service’s search and rescue abilities, and the new ship comes ready equipped and will be delivered in Coast Guard colours.
The arrival of Freyja will ensure that the Coast Guard has two modern vessels with the ability to carry out both security tasks and search and rescue missions in the often challenging conditions around Iceland.
Freyja has an 86 metre overall length and a 20 metre beam. Its size and outfitting are comparable to those of Thór, which was built for the Coast Guard in Chile, but Freyja will have greater towing and rescue capabilities.
The Coast Guard and the Ministry of Justice have already taken the decision that this addition to the fleet will be registered with its home port in Siglufjörður, and will operate from there and from Akureyri as required. Thór will continue to be based in Reykjavík.
The reasoning is that there is steadily increasing shipping traffic off the north and east of Iceland, while there is also an anticipated increase in the volume of cruise ship traffic. According to the Coast Guard, an incident involving such a vessel could pose significant risks to the environment, and delays of a few hours can make a real difference in such an event.
