Pleuger rudder

The Pleuger rudder is a power assisted ship's rudder. It creates a flow of water in the direction the rudder points powered by an auxiliary electric motor. This aids manoeuvrability at low speeds greatly, since it operates on a similar principle to a thruster.

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A ducted propeller is mounted as an integral part of the rudder and is fixed to it. The duct is a Kort nozzle and enables the propeller to develop more thrust than an unducted propeller.

The Pleuger rudder is necessarily mounted in the flow from the main engine's propeller in a ship with an odd number of propellers. If the Pleuger and the main engine are run at the same time, the Pleuger can often be torn away^[1]. The thrust produced by the Pleuger rudder is sufficient to power the ship in slow speed manoeuvres when the force required to move the vessel is relatively small.

See also

• Azipod
• Kitchen rudder
• Kort nozzle
• rudder