Bart Bear's Blog

How's this for using spare parts as artworks? On the front of the promenade deck of the "Queen Mary 2" is a set of 4 big, shiny, curved thingies. They look as good as some of the so-called art that our local government clutters up our parks with, but these have a really useful reason for being there. They are the spare propeller blades for the ship's azipods. QM2 has 4 azipods. They are the main propulsion units for the ship, and have the very useful feature that they can be turned in any direction. That means that the ship can be pushed sideways as well as forwards or reverse. With the bow thrusters at the front of the ship, this makes the QM2 so maneuverable that it can spin in its own length. Sometimes it gets a little help from tugboats, but only in really tiny harbours. The only problem with these blades was that they are too slippery for small bears to climb on, and bolted down so tight that no matter how I tried I just couldn't undo the nuts.

Labels: boats, cruising