Boating in Alaska

[Solittle]

We got back last week from a cruise down the inland passage in Alaska. A fabulous trip and one we greatly needed. On to boating stuff - -

Our ship was RCL's Radiance of the Seas. It is powered by two jet engines that provide power to to electric motors that are in pods beneath the stern of the ship. The pods rotate 360 degrees so with the bow thrusters the captain can move the ship in any direction. The pods are like huge lower units in outboards and I/Os except when going forward the prop is towards the bow. Fascinating!!! While I understand the concept I wonder about the structural effect of hitting a submerged 5' in diameter submerged log. Seems to me it would rip the pod off of the bottom of the hull. Anyway they seemed to work just fine and propelled us at 18-23 knots for 1,725 miles from Seward to Vancouver.

As for the boats of our size - - almost all power boats of any size had a kicker hanging off the stern for safety I'm sure. Also at least 50% of the outboard class boats were of alumnium construction and had a cabin of some sort.

Unfortunately we did not have an oportunity to gab with any of he local boaters. We did manage to get in a white water rafting thingy and also a sightseeing flight in a 1946 DeHavaland Beaver. Damnn that radial sounded nice.

Any Alaskan boaters out there? Also comments on this pod propulsion for the cruise ships?

 

[dajohnson53]

Re: Boating in Alaska

When you say "jet engines" did you mean that the engines propelled the boat via a jet pump? Or that they were turbine engines like jet airplanes use? How big was the ship? Sounds like fun.

My family and some friends rented canal/river cruising boats in France. One of the boats had bow thrusters which made maneuvering in the locks and also to tie up on shore a little easier. I found that with just a little practice I was able to do just fine piloting the boat w/o bow thrusters, but those with less experience experienced competence pretty quickly with the bow thrusters, but struggled without them.

 

[dajohnson53]

Re: Boating in Alaska

Oh, PS: I do boat in Alaska, but mostly rivers. I take my boat to the protected waters of the ocean to troll for silver (coho) salmon for a few days each year. The kickers are most likely both for safety, but also for trolling since most sport fishing for salmon (king/chinook and silver/coho mostly) involves trolling.

 

[Solittle]

Re: Boating in Alaska

The ship was 88000, tons I think and had accommodations for over 2000, "guests" plus a crew of around 900 - 600 were involved with food service.

As to the engines we were told that they were like those used B747 the B747 10 DC 10. They are coupled to generators which power the electric motors in the pods plus supply all other electric power.