OF

STEPHEN RICHARDS FOR

IMPROVEMENTS IN PONTOON BOAT AND VESSEL MOORING

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the mooring of a boats or sea vessels on to a pontoon.

Background

A mooring refers to any permanent structure to which a vessel may be secured. Examples which include areas of quays, wharfs, jetties and piers, these can be known as landing areas or launches. A boat is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the boat on the water. As a verb, mooring refers to the act of attaching a vessel to a mooring.

The term probably stems from the Dutch verb meren (to moor), which has been used in English since the end of the 15th century.

A vessel can be made fast to any variety of shore fixtures from trees and rocks to specially constructed areas such as piers and quays. The word pier is used in the following explanation in a generic sense. Mooring is often accomplished using a variation of thick ropes called mooring lines or hawsers. The lines are fixed to deck fittings on the vessel at one end and to fittings such as bollards, rings, and cleats on the other end.

Mooring requires cooperation between people on a pier and on a vessel. Heavy mooring lines are often passed from larger vessels to people on a mooring by smaller, weighted heaving lines. Once a mooring line is attached to a bollard, it is pulled tight. Large ships generally tighten their mooring lines using heavy machinery called mooring winches or capstans.

This type of person cooperation is also required for smaller boats where a person may have to step onto the pier or landing area to locate and attach the holding lines or ropes.

The heaviest cargo ships may require more than a dozen mooring lines. Small vessels can generally be moored by four to six mooring lines. Mooring lines are usually made from manila rope or a synthetic material such as nylon. Nylon is easy to work with and lasts for years, but it is highly elastic. This elasticity has advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that during an event, such as a high wind or the close passing of another larger boat, stress can be spread across several lines. However, should a highly stressed nylon line break, it may part catastrophically, causing snapback, which can fatally injure bystanders. The effect of snapback is analogous to stretching a rubber band to its breaking point between your hands and then suffering a stinging blow from its suddenly flexing broken ends. Such a blow from a heavy mooring line carries much more force and can inflict severe injuries or even sever limbs in some known cases. Mooring lines made from materials such as Dyneema and Kevlar have much less elasticity and are therefore much safer to use. However, such lines do not float on water and they do tend to sink. In addition, they are relatively more expensive than other sorts of line.

Some ships use wire rope for one or more of their mooring lines. Wire rope is hard to handle and maintain. There is also risk associated with using wire rope on a ship's stern in the vicinity of its propeller.

Mooring lines and hawsers may also be made by combining wire rope and synthetic line. Such lines are more elastic and easier to handle than wire rope, but they are not as elastic as pure synthetic line. Special safety precautions must be followed when constructing a combination mooring line.

It can be very difficult to reach the mooring point when in a boat and the boat occupants may not have anyone on shore or on the pontoon to assist them in all cases, meaning they have to try and locate the rope themselves, sometimes in rough seas or waters due to poor weather.

The present invention aims to provide an advantageously simple way to moor a boat or vessel on a floating pontoon, which provides a simple and easier way to locate the rope to the boat or vessel and retain it in position at a pontoon.

Summary of the invention

According to the present invention there is provided a vertical forward leaning mooring device which is located to and attached to a pontoon surface area.

To the upper area of the vertical body member are located two mooring rope end mounting points, being curved concaved narrowed members or alternatively straight angled members, forming a pair of horns in shape. These are of equal length and are of a strong suitably matching material used in the vertical neck member.

The vertical body member is a longitudinal upright form which has an end located between the curved rope mounting points. This end may be a rubber stopper or may have an integrally provided beacon light to enable boat users to site it during limited light periods, such as at night.

The longitudinal body member is angled in a forward degree as it stands presented from a pontoon. This forward angling provides a more convenient reach for the boat or vessel user when they handle the ropes. An 'L' bracket which is bolted onto the pontoon edge provides the securing for the mooring and rope mounts.

Two ropes are attached to the pontoon securely onto fittings in the known way and the ropes extend from these anchor points and have looped ends.

The looped end of the ropes is hooked over the curved rope mounting points, as shown in Figure 1.

The ropes remain hooked onto the curved rope mounting points and are ready to be used by approaching boats who wish to be moored at the pontoon.

The user comes alongside or frontally approaches the mooring in their boat or vessel and reach over to unhook the loop of the rope from the mounting points. The looped end is then attached to the cleat on the boat. The cleat is a fitting permanently situated to various points of the boats body edge and front / rear standings. This is a twin membered fixture which is made of a strong metal or steel and around which holding ropes or lines are wrapped or tied.

The preferred embodiment of the method herein, provides a permanent resting, holding, mounting and hanging point for the looped end of the mooring rope which is above the water and attached securely to the pontoon decking and edge. This rope is passed to the boat and attached to the cleat, to moor the boat in place. The looped end being of suitable form to hang over said horns and hang in place without becoming disconnected in tussling weather conditions. This resting provision is made by the two horn members which protrude from each side of the upper most area of the pontoon located mooring device, from its vertical body.

The horns, as shown in all Figures are a place to hang the mooring rope, thus unlike previously known methods, this embodiment enables the boat user to simply reach over from their boat and take hold of the mooring rope, unhook it from the curved or straight angled horns onto which it is being held and simply pass the rope to the cleat and secure it around.

This provides an ability to advantageously reach out and access the rope from a seated or a position that requires very little difficulty of accessing the mooring rope and offer the rope to the boat users at all times, making the process of mooring rope access improved and more easily available to persons wishing to moor boats at that location.

In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the Patent Office and the public generally, and especially the scientists, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved pontoon mooring device which has all the advantages of the prior art and none of the disadvantages. It is another object of the present invention to provide a new pontoon mooring device which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new and improved pontoon mooring device which is of durable and reliable construction.

An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved pontoon mooring device which is susceptible of a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labour, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such a product available to the buying public.

Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved pontoon mooring device which provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thereof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.

These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and detailed descriptive matter in which there is illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.

Brief description of figures

Figures 1 show a frontal view of the pontoon mooring devices. Figures 2 show a side view of the pontoon mooring device.

Detailed description of figures

A typical embodiment of the pontoon mooring device is shown in Figure 1 and comprise a curved horn member 1 and 4 which are affixed to a vertical body member 6. Ropes 2 and 5 are attached to fixture means 8 onto a pontoon decking or surface 7 thereto.

The mooring device is attached to the pontoon decking or surface 7 by means of an edge bracket 9 which is 'L' shaped to locate over the pontoon edge, as shown in Figure 1 and more clearly in Figure 2, 11. The pontoon is located above the water 10.

To the end point of the vertical body member 6 is a cap 3 which may also be provided as a light, to make the mooring points visible in the dark or poor weather.

Figure 2 shows a side view of the mooring device and the forward leaning fixture of the vertical body 6A. This is secured to the pontoon decking or surface 7A via the edge bracket 9A.

The rope 2A is shown being detached from the curved horn member 1A, in the broken lines, to connect to the boat or vessel, not shown.

A beacon light 3A is shown which can offer light during darkness or poor visual conditions. This can be solar powered or mains supplied depending of nearby facilities.

Two ropes 2A are provided to each mooring device to enable double securing of one or two boats or vessels.