Princess Cruises, part of Carnival Corporation, currently has seven vessels fitted with water lubricated Compac bearings after the first installation in 1998 on Grand Princess. "The water lubricated bearings from Thordon have been problem free," says Richard Vie, Vice President Newbuildings for Carnival Corporation. "Based on bearing wear data, we are not expecting to replace the bearings more than once in the life of the vessel, or perhaps not at all."

Thordon bearings is supplying its unique compac single key design bearings for 116,000 GRT twin screw newbuild vessel. The tapered single key design allows the bearing to be easily withdrawn from the bronze carrier, inspected and reinstalled with the shaft still in place. The compac elastomeric polymer alloy bearings for the 642mm (25in) diameter propeller shafts are designed to promote hydrodynamic operation at low shaft speeds and provide long wear life. A flow of seawater will be provided to the bearings for efficient cooling and lubrication in this pollution free propeller shaft bearing.