Topic starter
07/10/2011 2:12 pm
Check out MaritimeMatters.com and click on shipping news. There are some great photos of the Z-Drives being removed for service. I'm no expert on Z-Drive by far so it was neat to see them being removed from the top. They also appeared rather small for such a large boat. Is the sternwheel doing more work then I imagined?
07/10/2011 9:55 pm
Z-Drives...
Those look like 5-foot wheels on the Z-drives - the same as my boat which is 330 X 93 feet - so they look about right. I don't know if "I'm no expert", or not, but I have hundreds of hours operating two Unlimited Tonnage vessels using Z-drive propulsion, and I am very comfortable with these amazing drives.
Our two stern Z-drives on the GVII are rated at 500 hp each. The first passenger boat fitted with Z's, that I commanded, GVI, was 400 X 115 with three Schottel Drives on each end... so she had about 1500 horses working in unison on each end, but could be handled seperately on opposite ends for a total of 3000 hp. That's a lot of Ooomp.
By the way, you still need to know how to handle a boat - Z's or no Z's... and the only real Z-drive "experts" I met were techs from Holland.
08/10/2011 4:04 am
A.Q Paddle Wheel! I was a passenger on the 16 day maiden voyage. When departing St.Francisville, we had time to spare so the boat headed up river. They turned off the Z drives. The paddle wheel moved the boat at about 4 miles per hour.
08/10/2011 1:29 pm
Paddlewheel and Rudders
The main propulsion of the GVII is the huge 1500 hp, 52'-wide, dual, staggered sternwheel that turns a hefty 13-plus RPM's; driving the 10-million pound boat through still water at 8 to 10 MPH. Crank in the extra 1000 hp's from the Schottel drives, and fifteen miles in one hour could be the norm on Kentucky Lake on a calm day. "Miss Vicki", the former QUEEN OF NEW ORLEANS, is perhaps, the finest built and handling diesel-electric paddlewheeler ever built.
What I liked to tell newbies, when I was teaching them how to handle the boat, was: "Paddle and rudders - that's 'meat and potatoes' - the Z-drives and bow thruster (another 500 HP) ... they're the 'gravy'...."