Mounting the central pod

我们的AC72组装计划的下一步是中央吊舱的安装。中央吊舱是连接正向和后横梁的结构。中央豆荚的设计有效地扩展了船的翼展并减少了阻力。奥图萨（Otusa）的空气动力学专家汤姆·斯佩尔（Tom Speer）认为，正是这种特殊的结构使得USA 17faster than New Zealand’sAotearoa. This is also the only place in the platform where we can see some of the systems used to operate the boat—namely an electrical panel and the one spot where a lot of the cabling remains in place.

Mounting the central pod proved to be quite a challenge for the Mariners’ team because it had to remain perfectly aligned with the forward crossbeam in order seat correctly. Since we were hanging the pod from a gantry lift and a chain fall attached to the ceiling we were able to make minute changes in leveling and cant to port or starboard (the same way we had to manipulate the hulls in order to match up the connection points). Despite this we could not get the pod to seat all the way into the crossbeam. We could get it within 5” of the seating point and it would stop dead. No amount of pushing or pulling would make it move.

It was obvious that the fit was so tight that it needed a little help to slide into place. Help came in the form of an application of paste wax and a shot of silicone. Staff pushed the gantry until the pod stopped and we coaxed it the rest of the way into position with a large ratchet strap that ran from the mast step on the top of the pod and around the forward crossbeam to the bobstay connection point. The addition of the more slippery wax and silicone allowed the ratchet strap to slowly pull the central pod forward until it was perfectly seated in the forward crossbeam.

用于连接这两个结构的硬件是68个钛螺栓。安装硬件花了我们两个人 - 我在吊舱内部和其他人（Lyles或我的丈夫Todd）上。这有点有趣，因为我们必须更改硬件进出，以满足某些孔的特定要求（因为它们与舱壁或其他结构相对，或者需要略有不同的整体或柄长度）。由于舱壁略微向前，我不得不爬进四个不同的隔间，以便进入所有螺栓位置。

The main connection point between the central pod and forward crossbeam has four HUGE titanium male and female collared bushings that seated one within the other (if the smaller bolt assemblies were capable of withstanding 50,000 pounds of pressure I’d love to know what these puppies can put up with). Rather than a large nut on the end of the bolt, which would require a great deal of torque to tighten, there were multi-jackbolt tensioners (Superbolt). These were really nice because I doubt that as a 5’ 115lb girl I would have been strong enough to tighten the nut down well—not to mention the fact that I had to do it in confined quarters while straddling an open hatchway. The MJT’s made it a real breeze.