How the Americas Cup pushes man, machine and manual hydraulics to the limit.

After 30 years of crafting Micropac® hydraulic hand pumps, we constantly have to remind customers not to be over optimistic with how much energy a human can generate.

Not so with the latest Americas Cup yachts, where the rules stipulate all heavy duty hydraulics systems must be motorized purely by manual power. Step forward two incredible hulks per yacht, because at the Americas Cup, optimism about how much energy a human can generate isn’t just wishful thinking, it’s essential.

The first ever race around the Isle of Wight in 1893 was for a modest trophy, but since then monohulls have fought it out every four years, with the US reigning supreme until Alan Bond took the trophy back to Australia in 1983 with Australia II. Rules dictate that the holder can dictate the terms of the next race, and in 2010 Larry Ellison of Oracle fame won the Cup before opting for high performance catamarans for his defence in 2013. The end result was the legendary AC72 22 metre machines, ensuring a final between New Zealand and the USA in San Francisco back in 2013 that was simply electrifying starring a carbon fibre 50 mile per hour monster featuring a solid wing mainsail larger than a jumbo jet and rising right up out of the water on foils which delighted fans and professional mariners alike. Oracle USA were 5 points down before our own Ben Ainslie joined the team as tactician, helping pull them back to beat New Zealand and keep the trophy. The rest is history.

 

 

Fast forward two years and on Sunday 27th July, Portsmouth hosted the first round of the world series of elimination races determining a challenger for the USA, with the grand finale taking place in San Francisco in 2017.

The initial “Louis Vuitton” elimination races pitch challengers from individual countries to fight it out using the identical shorter AC45 catamarans. The winner will be the challenger who has to develop their own boat to challenge Oracle in 2017.

Where does hydraulics fit in? The four dagger board type foils are lowered into the water through the hulls then the “cant” and the “rake” are adjusted using hydraulics. On the bigger vessels, the massive solid wing mainsail is also trimmed using a hydraulic cylinder and there are other systems for trimming the sails. Engines, motors or high pressure stored energy are prohibited. There are simply hydraulic hand pumps connected to massive “grinder” winches operated by said Hulks when hydraulic power needs switching on. The rule allows push button solenoid valves to direct the hydraulic flow but when the helmsman needs hydraulic power, it is down to hulks on board to pump like crazy until they can pump no more.

Harken provided the hydraulics on the 2013 boats, including their titanium hydraulic cylinders and the rotary hand pumps. The units used were multiple cylinder piston pumps with an automatic changeover between low pressure / high flow and high pressure / low flow. Pressures run up to 700 bar, which is an application missed in our previous blog “Who Needs 700 Bar Hydraulics?” which can be read here. Clearly when you are spending a fortune trying to win one of the most competitive sporting trophies in the world, 700 bar hydraulics is a benefit.

This time round Parker Hannifin are engineering the hydraulics for the USA’s Oracle boat for the 2017 finale. As the world’s biggest hydraulic company, they have some incredible knowhow. Their composite cylinders such as the Lightraulics® series are world class and setting the standard for composite hydraulics worldwide.

As history has shown us many times, throwing infinite amounts of money at a problem can be outmanoeuvred by Brits coming up with something deviously clever for a fraction of the price. But as the rules are pretty tight, there seems to be little room for dramatic innovation. There again, if you are match-racing against one other boat, if lots of small advantages mount up, all you need to do is beat the Oracle.  All eyes are on Ben Ainslie’s BAR Team.

Sarum Hydraulics are the experts in manual hydraulic power. Ben, if you want any help, why not visit us at www.sarum-hydraulics.co.uk and we’ll see what we can do.