After her 24,000-kilometre voyage, the RSV Nuyina arrives in Hobart

She has arrived! After a journey of almost seven weeks from Vlissingen, RSV Nuyina arrived at her home port of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, on 16 October. The advanced research vessel, which took Damen Naval five years to build, will make its first supply voyage to Antarctica just before Christmas. Project Director Joop Noordijk and his team are extremely proud.

The Australian authorities would have liked to add lustre to the arrival of RSV Nuyina with festivities for the population. After a patient wait, ‘their’ polar research vessel, which even had a series of Australian stamps dedicated to it, would finally berth at the quay in Hobart. But COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works. One day before arrival, the island of Tasmania went into lockdown. “All planned public festivities had to be cancelled at the last minute. Very unfortunate, but nothing could be done,” Project Director Joop Noordijk recalls.

“There was even talk of Prime Minister Scott Morrison being present at the arrival of the ship. But even he did not come in the end because of the lockdown.” According to Joop, some smaller festivities are planned in the run-up to the start of Nuyina’s first real working trip. The Antarctic Supply Research Vessel (ASRV) will be leaving Hobart for Antarctica for the very first time on 20 December to serve as a floating lifeline to this immense polar region, supplying scientific research stations of the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and relieving the people working there.

And next year, if everything goes according to plan, there might even be a formal celebration to which Damen Naval people can be invited. “At the moment that’s really not possible because there are very strict rules for people travelling to Australia from abroad,” says Joop.

It was towards the summer of 2015 that Joop first became involved in the ASRV project. That was still in the tendering process, as it was only in April 2016 that Damen Naval signed the contract to build the research vessel for the AAD as the successor to the existing, outdated research vessel RSV Aurora Australis.

Six years on, Damen Naval can look back on a masterful act: building the most complex ship the company has ever built. At the peak of construction of the 160-metre long and 50-metre wide Nuyina, more than a thousand people were working on the ship, which is a combination of research and supply vessel and icebreaker. After six intensive years, how does it feel to Joop to have been in charge of this major project? Modest and down-to-earth as he is, the Project Director says that the entire team can be proud that they were allowed to build this special ship. “When you see the ship sailing away, you think to yourself: we all did a great job building this ship. We are just as proud of this as the Australians are proud that the Nuyina is now in Hobart.”

Meanwhile, the warranty period for the Nuyina has begun. Michiel Schittekat, who travelled on the 24,000-kilometre voyage from Vlissingen to Hobart on behalf of Damen Naval, is now stationed in Hobart to act on the shipbuilder’s behalf in settling any warranty issues.

RSV Nuyina is a very important ship for Australia, highlights Joop. “The country sees itself as the guardian and custodian of Antarctica,” he says, “and this ship will enable Australia to maintain a strong presence in this vast region for the next thirty years. The icebreaker will play a major role in climate and environmental research. Not only the scientific research stations located in Antarctica, but also the laboratories on board the ship itself are indispensable for carrying out these studies.”

On the AAD website, the chief executive and the Australian prime minister make no secret of their joy at Nuyina’s historic homecoming. AAD Director Kim Ellis describes the icebreaker as “the Swiss army knife among Antarctic ships” and Prime Minister Scott Morrison says to the future crews and researchers on board, “You carry with you the discoveries of the past, the questions of today and the dreams of the future. I wish you calm seas and clear skies.”

The Nuyina chapter has thus been closed very successfully for Damen Naval. But the ship will remain in the picture for some time, Joop expects. “Certainly because of the activities it will be undertaking in the context of climate research, I expect RSV Nuyina to continue to attract international attention over the coming years. And it remains a unique ship, of course. Only a few of these ships have been built anywhere in the world.”