"Richard Casady" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:05:12 +0000, Larry wrote:

Brian Whatcott wrote in
m:

Still, a useful tip...



It's time the boats went diesel-electric. Sure works great for the
trains...(c;

How about direct drive as used by the WWII German torpedo boats? You
stop the engine and restart it turning the other way. They didn't have
a compressor and only had enough air to start the engines once. Put a
premium on seamanship to say the least. All the biggest ships, tankers
and boxboats both, are that way. They avoid having a multimillion buck
gearbox.

'Multi-million gearbox'?
Have you ever looked at an engine that will turn a big ships propeller at
80-100 rpm with direct drive?
They do not come cheap.