NATURE FRIENDLY WATER HYDRAULIC STEERING SYSTEM

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A vast majority of the sailing boats currently sailing the world’s seas are being steered with a complex mechanical steering system. A great disadvantage is in the complexity of the currently standard built-in mechanical steering systems with steelwiring, intertwined with chains and transfers that is hidden in the boat’s hull that connect the steering wheel and the rudder. Hydraulic steering/operating systems are currently used in a wide range of motor-operated vessels, whereas for sailing boats such steering systems are not available on the market. The greatest challenge of all hydraulic steering systems is in motor-operated vessels is environmental - hydraulic oil leakage. Namely, 1 drop of hydraulic oil damages 150 l of drinking water and the cleaning of 1000kg of polluted soil costs around 2.000€. With the GREEN WHS steering system hydraulic oil leakage is impossible, since the hydraulic medium in our case is water. GREEN WHS also addresses the environmental issue of ‘dumpster marinas’, where old abandoned sailing boats decompose and burden water ecosystems many years; only in Spain the communities are dealing with more than 10.000 such vessels (https://bit.ly/2MiypXb). There are no currently known hydraulic steering system solutions for sailing boats available on the market. Currently available steering systems on the market are based on mechanic principles. We see our business opportunity in offering the market an advanced water hydraulic steering system for sailing boats that convinces the sailing boat manufacturers and buyers by its simplicity in terms of installation and maintenance requirements. We plan our initial market entry through the existing base of buyers – sailing boat manufacturers, OEMs and B2B business partners. We are already in constant contact with all of them online and in face-to-face meetings. The market share at the initial market take up we are aiming at is between 0,5% and 1% of the total boat steering market in the EU.