Voith-Schneider ........a unique way to propel a boat

[Dave S]

I was watching the History Channel the other night and one of their programs featured a story about tug boats. I never gave much thought to how a tug is propelled or what contributes to it's power or manueverabilty. They explained that they have a unique propulsion system I had never heard of consisting of a rotating plate with vertical blades attached to it which can change pitch and direction. Here is a picture of the drive blades and here is the companies web site as well.

http://www.voithturbo.de/vt_en_pua_marine_vspropeller.htm

 

[Sea Ray 300]

Dave,

While watching an expose on cruise ships on the Travel channel, they showed the construction of one particular ship.
It had at least 4, huge (maybe 3 stories tall) pods very similar to Volvo IPS drives, and not just at the stern.