Having fixed my stuck governor I'm able to turn to other issues.

Our little boat has hydraulic steering with two wheels, on inside in
the saloon and one up on the flying bridge. It works pretty well but
one needs to [re]pressurize it regularly as the sump of hydraulic oil
is down low by the engine. As it's pressurized it tends to lose a
little oil past the seals etc.

I've been wondering if it's really necessary for it to be pressurized,
if one moved the sump up to the flying bridge, just above the wheel
there, the whole thing could be simply gravity fed. It would thus all
work at much lower pressure (the standard pressure to pump it up to at
the moment is 15psi).

Has anyone ever seen a system like this (i.e. gravity fed) and/or have
I missed anything obvious that would stop it working?

--
Chris Green
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