The German shipyard Peters Werft has secured a special order from the yacht segment: the overhaul of the expedition yacht “Arctic P.”
The vessel will be docked for several months for conversion and repair work, as the shipyard recently announced on social media. The silhouette of the 87.6-meter luxury yacht still reveals its origins as the German ocean-going tugboat “Arctic,” built over 55 years ago at the Schichau shipyard in Bremerhaven. However, today, with its oversized radar mast and large satellite systems, the ship no longer tows damaged vessels or oil platforms across the world’s oceans but serves as a floating vacation paradise for an Australian millionaire.
With a bollard pull of 179 tons and towing wires with a breaking strength of 380 tons, the two ocean-going tugs “Oceanic,” built at the Schichau shipyard in 1969, and its sister ship “Arctic,” were among the most powerful salvage tugs in the world at the time, operated by the Hamburg-based shipping company Bugsier.
As a yacht, “Arctic P” sails close to the South Pole
The tug was later sold to Australian billionaire Kerry Packer, who, starting in 1994, had the vessel converted into a private yacht at Malta Shipyards, designed by Kusch Yachts. Renamed “Arctic P” after its conversion, the former tugboat embarked on a new chapter.
In the following years, the yacht was repeatedly upgraded and is now said to include a 4-D cinema with surround sound and vibrating chairs, a heated beach house pool sheltered from the elements, a fully equipped gym, a library, and a professional diving center.
After Kerry Packer’s death in 2005, his daughter, Australian businesswoman and philanthropist Gretel Packer, acquired the yacht in a settlement with her brother, James Packer.
“Arctic P” enters the Guinness Book of Records
Due to its history as a salvage tug, this yacht has some unique design features compared to classic yachts, including a fuel tank with a capacity of 1,400,000 liters and an ice-reinforced hull. In 2013, the “Arctic P” sailed toward the South Pole, coming within 700 nautical miles of it—earning the vessel a spot in the Guinness Book of Records.
Interestingly, the “Arctic P” is not the only former Bugsier salvage tugboat now sailing the world’s oceans as a yacht. In 1993, the former “Simson” was sold to a Swiss industrialist. The 77.7-meter-long vessel, now named “Lone Ranger,” has returned to Blohm + Voss in Hamburg several times over the years for conversion work.
The former “Oceanic,” sister ship of the “Arctic,” was chartered to the German government as an emergency tugboat for the North Sea in March 1996. It was sold to a Turkish shipping company eleven years ago and renamed “Osman Khan.” The tug has been lying in a shipyard in Malta for eight years, awaiting reconstruction. (CE)
