Polar Class

This article is about ice class. For ships or projects referred to as polar icebreakers or Polar-class icebreakers, see polar icebreaker (disambiguation).
The 2012-built South African polar research vessel S. A. Agulhas II is one of the few vessels rated PC 5 or higher.

Polar Class (PC) refers to the ice class assigned to a ship by a classification society based on the Unified Requirements for Polar Class Ships developed by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). Seven Polar Classes are defined in the rules, ranging from PC 1 for year-round operation in all polar waters to PC 7 for summer and autumn operation in thin first-year ice.[1]

The IACS Polar Class rules should not be confused with International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code) by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

  1. ^ Unified Requirements for Polar Class ships Archived 2012-06-20 at the Wayback Machine. International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), April 2016. Retrieved 2024-02-16.