Around 1/23/2005 5:19 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:

Ok, we are all familiar with inboards, I/Os, and outboards. Most of us have
seen a stern wheeler or a side wheeler or a picture of one, but what else is
there?
snip
Anyway. Iwas curious what kinds of unusual drives there were ot there.

The Voith Schneider cycloidal propulsion system. AKA the "tractor"
drive, it is capable of producing full thrust in any direction. As
featured on one of my favorite Puget Sound tugs, the Garth Foss. (I like
the name!)

You haven't seen anything special until you've seen how a couple of
these drives and 8,000 HP can make a 138 foot, 460 ton tug literally
dance on the water as it maneuvers.

http://www.voithturbo.de/vt_en_pua_m...spropeller.htm


--
~/Garth - 1966 Glastron V-142 Skiflite: "Blue-Boat"
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats."
-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows