Monster Drives

Michael T

Watched a  Mighty Ships segment that went aboard the Northern Leader which is the biggest long line fishing ship in the world. It works out of Alaska in the Bearing Sea. It lays down 80 KILOMETERES....that's 50 MILES of baited long lines at a time. However, that's not the point. To hold position and avoid the lines when bringing them in it has a set of monster Z drives. Like Axius drives and pod drives they both work independently and of course there are (have to be) two of them!

We talk about the independent Axius drives and the big Mercruiser Zeus pod drives on here a lot but these huge pod drives are something else. If you ever come across the segment on the Discovery Channel's Mighty Ships or see a video of the Northern Leader it is very interesting.

Dream_Inn

They use the same type of drives for the cruise ships as well.  I watched a segment the other day about Royal Caribbean's newest largest cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas.  Each prop was 14 feet in diameter!

Black_Diamond

Yup. Been in commercial use for many years. Big ocean tugs were the first I believe. The pods extended 20-30 feet below the surface. 

Michael T

The program said the Northern Leader was the only commercial fishing factory boat in Alaska, and one of the few in the world that has never had to seek shelter in a storm. In the program there were 50 mph winds with some 30 meter waves. It was nuts! The boat is only 156 feet long!