That is what the cyclists are doing - replenishing the pressure used. Big adjustments and consequential movements use lots of the pressure. If you do not have the pressure the adjustment does not take place and trouble can quickly occur. Cast your mind back to an incident where the boat went early into a tack in San Francisco and neatly capsized. In that instance, the boat did not have enough pressure built up to complete the manoeuvre. “The hydraulic pressure used on the boat is around 400bar or 5800psi. To put this in context, your home’s water pressure is around 50psi. This pressure has been designed lower than on the last challenge in San Francisco where there was pressure of around 8000psi. Higher pressure means you can have smaller lighter rams acting quicker,” says Lee Short, director, Hydraulink Fluid Connectors. “Hydraulink have been proudly supplying Team New Zealand products and services since 1995. We are an ‘official supplier’ - offering our products and expertise free of charge as part of an exclusive group of highly specialised suppliers who contribute quality, reliable products and services to assist the team. We understand that this pool of product and resources saves ETNZ around $30m in costs throughout their campaign,” says Lee. He adds there is only about 11 litres of oil on the boat which is reticulated in this closed loop system to many little rams on the boat. So, the wing has cylinders as well as the rams on the dagger board and the rudder.
EN-Aug17-eMag4
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