Rim Driven Propellers

Vetus don't advertise any Rim Drive propulsion units just Rim Drive Thrusters so its fairly safe to say while it may be electric drive it won't be rim drive going by the information in the public domain today (Google)

Any news on the Yamaha Harmo released at METS 2016?

Here is the doppleganger: http://maritime-executive.com/article/north-americas-first-tidal-turbine-operational

http://www.openhydro.com/Technology/Overview

New to this forum, thought I'd give everyone an update on P-M (permanent magnet) shaftless motors being used as a main source of propulsion, (instead of thrusters).
Sorry if this may seem unrelated to yachts, but rim drive tech has been a popular area of research for Navy submarine propulsion, as there are significant decreases in acoustic signature (far less moving parts, no shaft, and no need for generators to be running, less cavitation).

Currently the top US ballistic missile subs are propelled using a electric impeller driven pump jet. This uses conventional electric PM shaft driven impellors. Though it appears that the US and Britain have been attempting to develop shaftless rim drive propulsors AND rim drive impellors for pump jet propulsion (I noticed this possibility was an area of discussion earlier in this thread Brian Eiland).
Around 2006 this concept for rim drive propulsors was presented:
http://web.mit.edu/2n/Abst-ExecSum/2006/Conversion/RIM%20ELECT%20DRI-INTER%20SUB.pdf
and the LSVII (US Navy Large scale test vehicle is currently testing PM rim drive tech.


LSVII cutthroat (US Navy Large scale test vehicle)

Britain seems to be considering PM rim drive for its next sub..

"The British Royal Navy Successor submarine (the class replacing the Vanguard class SSBNs) state that the submarines may have submarine shaftless drive (SSD) with an electric motor mounted outside the pressure hull."
-https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/05/stealthier-submarine-technology-on-new.html

It appears that the US and Britain are behind the Chinese in this development race , as the Chinese have recently reported a breakthrough..
Rear Admiral Ma Weiming, China’s top naval engineer said
"the Chinese navy is adding a “shaftless” rim-driven pump jet, a revolutionary and silent propulsion system to their newest attack submarine, the Type 095 SSN."

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/06/china-attempting-to-leap-beyond-current-us-submarine-technology-by-installing-first-electric-drive-on-a-military-submarine.html

Though the US Navy is sceptical that the Chinese have actually implemented this tech.

Regardless it seems that PM rim drive tech is a viable option for main propulsion, here’s to hoping that this translates to widespread commercial use!

This looks like it's in production:

http://voith.com/corp-en/drives-transmissions/voith-inline-thruster-propulsor.html

That's certainly fair - I missed that particular bit.

I did subsequently find this product from Brunvoll that may be promising:

https://www.brunvoll.no/products/main-propulsion-systems
You have to burrow down through a couple of subsections on the page (open the 'Electric Propulsion' then the 'Brunvoll Azimuth Propulsion Thrusters' followed by the 'RDT Azimuth Propulsion Thrusters' subsections) where they eventually state:

They then show two photos of what appears to be an actual steerable rim-drive primary propulsion installation. I wish they had thought to include more information about the vessel. I wonder if it may be a tug or something rather than a vessel that will see cruise for extended periods.

From the second rim pic, the hull look a lil used. That rim could have some hours on it.

It looks like am interesting retrofit job. You can see the newer plates welded over the hole the prop shaft used to come out of and the rim drive assembly now seems to be hang directly from what used to be the rudder post hole. I suspect the bottom keel plate used to extend out to support the bottom of the rudder and has since been hacked off to allow room for the rim drive nozzle. It should also work quite nicely as a very powerful maneuvering thruster. I wonder if they've modified the steering to allow it to rotate to a full 90 degrees? Judging by the draft markings on the hull the inside diameter of the nozzle something around 6 feet.