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'Polar Bound' Boat Boasts BTL Belts
01 Jun 2002
The first circumnavigation of the globe around the North Pole via both the North West and North East Passages is scheduled to be launched next month in a specially adapted boat, whose key services will be powered by detachable V-belts supplied by Leeds UK-based BTL.
In a 25,000 mile voyage that is expected to take up to three years, solo adventurer David Scott Cowper's self-righting ice class 48ft boat Polar Bound will depend upon BTL's Super-T-Link wedge belts to transmit power from a single Gardner 170 hp engine to an auxiliary alternator and its bilge system drives.
The Super-T-Link belt, manufactured from a composite polyurethane and polyester material, ensures an extended operational life over rubber-based belts and offers a high resistance to hostile environments such as seawater, oil and extreme heat or cold. Its link construction removes the need to dismantle the drive in order to fit new belts, as the Super-T-Link is simply joined around the shaft and sprung onto the pulleys at the required tension.
Polar Bound was built by New Century Marine of Rosneath in Scotland. Its voyage will head initially to Cape Horn and up the West Coast of the Americas before heading out to the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait.
MJ Information No: 17129
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