Taming the beast-a conversation with Stuart Meurer of Parker Hannifin

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 18 May 2016 If you spent any time watching videos of the AC72 class catamarans racing in the 34th America’s Cup (2013) in San Francisco, you’re familiar with the mind-boggling speeds that are possible when wingsail-powered catamarans switch from displacement sailing to foiling, where the yacht’s full weight rides on relatively small hydrofoils.

While foiling is fast, there’s no disguising the fact that the platform is inherently unstable. Staying upright, therefore, is a matter of great design, spot-on control systems, and fantastic crew choreography. Get it right and you win the Auld Mug; blow this formula and your vessel will likely end up in tatters, much like what happened to Oracle Team USA’s first-generation AC72 on October 16, 2012.

While Oracle Team USA eventually learned to properly fly their second-generation AC72 (as well as their first AC72, after a significant repair and refitting job), the boat was never particularly stable and nosedives were a constant concern.

As a result of this less-than-ideal stability and overall control, Oracle Team USA contacted Parker Hannifin, one of the world’s leading specialists in motion and control technology, early in the “AC35” development cycle to see if there was a better way to control their foiling cats. While Parker Hannifin does not make end-use products, their control systems are found in a wide range of well-known products, ranging from Boeing passenger jets to the Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II.

A partnership was formed, and Parker Hannifin dispatched Stuart Meurer, their project manager of flight controls on Oracle Team USA’s yacht for 35th America's Cup, to Bermuda to work with Oracle Team USA’s design staff to innovate better solutions for controlling the daggerboards, the rudder foils and the mighty wingsails. I caught up with Meurer to learn more about this partnership, and about controlling flight on foiling catamaran.

Did Parker Hannifin build the hydraulics that Oracle Team USA used to win the last America’s Cup?
We did not. Parker was not, I would say, actively involved because Parker just has so much catalogue hardware available to anybody, I’m sure you would likely find some Parker product on just about everything that moves, even if it’s just down to fittings or filters or something small like that. The actual controls that were used to control the actuation of the boat [were] not Parker, we didn’t get involved until this campaign as the actual innovation partner, which now has us actually running the architecture of how everything’s going to function, doing the analysis and design of the componentry, custom-designing and manufacturing the actuators, manifold and the controls, as well as providing electronics.

How did that partnership come about?
Well, the story I was told by my boss was that Oracle Team USA, after winning the last Cup and moving into this Cup [cycle realized that they needed] to be much more dynamic. The controls need to be much more reactive, much more responsive, much more accurate. And you really need to be in tune with light controls…[Oracle] needs to be able to control the pitch. So they started pursuing Aerospace, that was the direction they wanted to have to take it to the next level there. I believe they approached Airbus and Boeing, and I think one of the comments the Boeing company said was ‘you know obviously we build aircraft, but we don’t design our flight controls, [but] Parker [does], you should give them a call’, and that’s what happened. Oracle called up to the powers that be over at Parker aerospace, and I think there was complete agreement that this was going to be a great partnership.

Can you talk to me a little bit about the evolution of hydraulics since you guys have been involved?
I think that’s where the learning experience of both sides of the fence really kind of started. [When] we kicked it off, there was two different worlds suddenly colliding, and I think it was kind of invisible collision that didn’t work great initially because aerospace is very regimented and controlled…we know the loads, we know the speeds, we know what kind of pressures we’re dealing with, there’s a controlled environment, and we’ve got years [of experience].

[In the America’s Cup] environment, which is we need something fast, we need something [strong], and I think there was a thick grey line in between those two worlds.

Over time, the biggest thing that’s happened is we’ve gotten rid of that boundary, the communications have started to converge and now [with] me on site in Bermuda as the Parker designer, I’m able to work directly with the sailors, work with the other designers, work with the shore people, understand what this world is and develop something

The first generation [collaboration] took so many months, let’s say six months, and there’s a large cost associated with it, and now we turn around a new design from concept to manufacturing in a few weeks, and we’re able to test-out new concepts instantly, actually on the day. So we’re in a perfect place so that we can prove out architectures or concepts for controls, and then implement that into a final design in a few weeks so we can actually get on the boat. That process has also cut the cost down to like twenty percent of the original cost, and the weight [went] down by about thirty percent of the original weight as well, which is just great.

What’s a harder challenge, building the hydraulics that control the wingsail, or the hydraulics that control the foils?
I would say the most complicated system is probably the daggerboard foil system… When I say ‘the system’ I mean because it’s comprised of so much, between the hydraulic pumps, the manifolds that control the hydraulic flows, pressures, as well as the actuators that drive [the daggerboard foils].

How are these foils are controlled?
All of the functions have to be manually controlled. We’re still evolving who’s [using] those controls. It’s so physically demanding to supply multiple hydraulic power to all the controls. The ability to actually generate [this power] through the grinders [to] drive the pumps, and do these different control functions-we’re still kind of moving it around.

So what’s a bigger challenge-making the hydraulics small, or making them respond faster to commands?
The difficulty isn’t making it small, that’s for sure, we can make them as small as you want, we can make them as light as they need to be, and we can make them as fast-responsive as necessary.

I don’t think the Cup and what we’re doing here is developing new technology as much as taking what exists and incorporating that into this new atmosphere. The hardest thing for me is not developing that new technology but figuring out what parts of that new technology can be used here, how do we put it within the Cup rules that exists on keeping this a manual sport, not putting too much automation into it, and getting the power level down so that the guys have to generate as [little energy] as possible in order to make it as efficient as possible.

What kind of forces are your hydraulic systems exposed to?
I hesitate only because I don’t know that we want to disclose what the actuaries are putting out.

Okay, maybe you could disclose this: is it fair to assume that there’s more load on the foils than there is on the wing sail?
It’s kind of two different animals. We’re looking at the daggerboard system as more of the direct acting system so the actuators are pushing on the boards…but the force is pushed over a small area. The wing is incredibly large and reacts to very small pressures, which in total create large forces.

You’re going to have that incredibly large surface area on the wing to generate that force versus the very small surface area of the daggerboard to get the boat out [of the water].

How risky is a capsize for the hydraulics?
I would say it’s pretty low risk, relative to everything else of the yacht. If you look at how you know the structure of the boat itself, or the structure of the wing, the hydraulics are pretty robust. So all the controls are within manifolds which are not going to be damaged if it capsized, they’re designed to actually be submerged in water. The actuators are fully sealed from the environment to keep everything out [and to keep] the hydraulic pressure in, so [I] think it would take a pretty serious capsize at a pretty serious load to actually damage any of those.

How much work have you guys done on the AC45s?
Well, we’ve been working on the AC45 hydraulic system for two years now. Done about three training boats, each training boat has been redesigned almost from scratch each time we’ve done it, and each has been retro-fitted multiple times with new hydraulic systems along the way.

The reality is it’s turned into a non-stop revolution. And that’s the main thing with the racing industry and this campaign is there’s not a day that goes by that we’re not working on the design and that still holds true for the AC45.

Sounds like you guys have your hands full.
Parker is very different sponsor from many of those other sponsors that are out there that are looking to use this as a lot more marketing and advertising. Parker is looking to learn a lot more from this experience, and that’s something that we’ve been doing. We’ve been looking at this team from a motivational standpoint and an organizational behavior, how they operate, how we’ve got a team of people here who work seven days a week, non-stop, continuing this at weeks on end, through the day, through the night, that are all actively engaged. It’s not just people working, everybody is doing what they need to do to get it done, and it’s a level of self-sacrifice to support the team. And yeah, we’re trying to go more of that into the Parker Hannifin Corporation.

Are you guys exclusive with Oracle, or are you guys also building hydraulics for other teams?
Oracle Team USA is the only team that we are custom-designing hardware for, or working directly with and onsite with, and directly supporting currently. I picked those words a little [carefully] because there are a lot of other things going on…[look] at any [Cup] boat and you’ll find Parker [equipment] on there because we make incredibly lightweight hydraulic fittings.

Now there’s also team Artemis, which is sponsored by Parker Hannifin. But the Artemis team is actually sponsored in a small portion by Parker, one of the divisions of Parker is providing discounted product and such for that team. So there’s no custom designing going on, there’s no working on a system, but there is a technically a sponsorship there.

And whether you’re familiar or not with the relationship [between] Oracle Team USA and [SoftBank Team] Japan, you will see the Parker branding on the Team Japan boat as well because of that partnership with Oracle.