Zodiak II – the multi-purpose vessel of the Maritime Office in Gdynia – will undergo its first scheduled overhaul. The tender announced by the Office was won by PGZ Naval Shipyard, which will now be responsible for the renovation of the vessel that in 2020 was recognized as the best in the world in its class.

The tender result was announced on LinkedIn by the president of PGZ Naval Shipyard, Marcin Ryngwelski. The vessel was built five years ago at Remontowa Shipbuilding, where he was CEO at the time.

“The overhaul will take several weeks, and the shipyard will make every effort to return the vessel to the owner on time, so that it can continue carrying out its tasks for the safety of maritime navigation in the Baltic Sea,” he wrote on his profile.

The handover of the multi-purpose vessel to the Maritime Office in Gdynia took place on 20 August 2020. As Ryngwelski recalls, the construction of Zodiak was an extreme challenge, as it took place during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Commissioning was impossible at the time, because foreign service teams could not fly to Poland.

Zodiak II is the largest vessel ever operated by the maritime offices. It functions as an icebreaker and is used for deploying navigational aids, towing ships, conducting hydrographic work, and combating oil spills. It is also equipped for rescue and firefighting operations. It replaced the nearly 40-year-old vessel Zodiak.

The vessel was built as part of the “Nostri Maris – construction of two multi-purpose vessels” project carried out by the Maritime Office in Szczecin. The project was co-financed by the European Union from the Cohesion Fund under the Operational Programme “Infrastructure and Environment” for 2014–2020.