Ships – Implements – Hull cleaning
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-07
2001-12-11
Basinger, Sherman (Department: 3617)
Ships
Implements
Hull cleaning
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327991
ABSTRACT:
FIELD
The present invention pertains to boat maintenance and more particularly to a method and apparatus for cleaning a boat in the water while avoiding or minimizing pollution.
BACKGROUND
The necessity of having to clean the hull of a boat periodically has long been known. Marine organisms must be removed for hull preservation and boat efficiency. Hulls may need old paint removed and new paint applied. Decks and other boat parts also need to be cleaned. If the boat is cleaned in the water, these cleaning tasks typically involve brushing both above and below the waterline. Sanding and the use of various cleaning agents and paint strippers may also be used above the waterline.
Although such cleaning may be effective to maintain a boat, boat cleaning is also known to result in air and/or water pollution, unless special precautions are taken. Brushing and sanding the hull release contaminants, such as old paint containing lead. If cleaners are used, they are usually toxic. Even if the deck of a boat is washed down with fresh water, polluting materials can be discharged or washed overboard.
Voluntary campaigns to control pollution from boat cleaning have been organized, but unfortunately these efforts have not been sufficiently effective. Because of continued concerns about the environment, ever more stringent federal and state laws and programs with tough penalties have been, or are being, enacted or proposed. Under these laws, severe fines and even jail terms have been imposed for those who still pollute the harbor waters as a result of boat cleaning.
A well-recognized way of avoiding water pollution is to clean the boat on land, although the problem of air pollution still exists. Moreover, having to haul a boat onto land to perform the cleaning tasks is inconvenient and expensive, especially burdensome for routine maintenance. As a result many boats are still being cleaned in the water notwithstanding the resulting pollution.
Apart from applicant, no practical and relatively economical solution to the environmental problems associated with routine boat cleaning is known to exist in the past. Some have tried to minimize the fouling of the boat's hull by covering it while moored. For example, the U.S. Patent to Faidi U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,069 discloses a bag that is pressed against the hull a shield the hull from the water. However, providing a protective cover for the hull does not directly address the problem of cleaning as described above, which in any event may be required. If chemicals are placed in the bag to dissolve marine growths, the chemicals may escape into the water. On the other hand, the U.S. Patents to Seiple U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,109 and to Feurt U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,078 do disclose floating hull cleaning equipment so that hull cleaning can take place in the water. These are complicated constructions, expensive to build and use, and do not allow routine boat maintenance at a typical dock or slip. Moreover, Seiple has no provision for avoiding pollution, and Feurt, although providing for the evacuation of contaminated water, does not prevent contaminates from escaping through the entrance and exit curtains.
To applicant's knowledge, applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,963 discloses the only method and apparatus that directly addresses the problem of cleaning a boat hull in the water and at a typical slip while avoiding pollution. Although the concepts disclosed in this earlier patent are still valid, the subject invention provides certain improvements.
SUMMARY
An apparatus and method are disclosed for cleaning a boat in the water while avoiding or minimizing pollution. Included are a floating, water-impervious basin and a filtration system. The basin has side walls sloped downwardly to a nadir spanning substantially the full length of the basin, an opening allowing the surrounding water to enter the basin as well as ingress and egress of boats, and a gate movable into a closed position over the opening and forming a cleaning chamber in the basin containing a pool of water. After the gate is closed behind a boat, the boat is floating in the pool of water that is now isolated from the surrounding water. As the gate is closing behind a boat, it allows water to pass therethrough to facilitate closure and to control the volume of water in the chamber, and yet is substantially sealed when closed. The filtration system includes a collector pipe lying submerged in the nadir and a pair of return pipes that float on the water in the basin. The sloped side walls and water exiting from the return pipes facilitate movement of materials resulting from the cleaning operation toward the collector pipe. The filtration system sucks the water-borne materials into the collector pipe, pumps them through a filter, and returns clean water to the basin through the return pipes. The relationship of the pipes and the basin facilitates reversibility of the basin so that its exterior surface may be periodically cleaned.
An object of the present invention is to clean a boat in the water without causing pollution.
Another object is to facilitate routine maintenance of a boat without causing pollution.
An additional object is to provide a closed system for cleaning the hull and other parts of a boat while in the water, wherein the substances removed from the boat and the materials used to remove them are collected and filtered out and are not allowed to escape into the surrounding water or air.
A further object is to provide a basin into which a boat is placed for cleaning, wherein the shape of the basin facilitates collection and removal of the substances cleaned off the boat and of the materials used to clean the boat.
Yet another object is to form a sheet of flexible waterproof material into a floatable, boat cleaning basin of desired shape, in which a boat may be placed for cleaning purposes, and which facilitates removal of contaminates that result from cleaning the boat in the water.
A still further object is to provide a collector that cooperates with the shape of a basin in which a boat may be cleaned while in the water for the purpose of facilitating the collection and removal of undesirable substances and cleaning materials.
Another object is to provide a boat cleaning apparatus that includes a cooperating pre-shaped basin and filtration system that facilitates movement of contaminated water and solid materials toward a collection area, collects contaminated water from the basin, and returns cleaned water to the basin.
An additional object is to provide a waterproof, floatable boat-cleaning basin that is made of flexible material, that can be configured to retain a desired shape under water and around the hull of a boat, and that resists billowing out of such shape by controlling the volume of water in the basin.
Another object is to provide a collector pipe for a boat cleaning apparatus that cooperates with the cleaning basin of the subject apparatus so that the pipe assists in maintaining the shape of the basin when a boat is floating in water within the basin.
A still further object is to return cleaned water to the pool of water in the cleaning basin of a boat maintenance apparatus so that the water is returned without causing undesirable turbulence in the pool.
An additional object is control the buoyancy of different parts of an apparatus for cleaning a boat in the water in order to control the positions of the parts and their interaction.
Yet another object is to provide a basin, a collector pipe, and return pipes used in a boat maintenance apparatus that cooperate to facilitate easy reversibility of the basin, so that both of its surfaces can be periodically cleaned.
Another object is to provide a gate for a cleaning basin of a boat cleaning apparatus wherein the gate is movable from an open position to a closed position, and while closing, releases water from the basin so as to assist in controlling the volume of water in the basin.
Still an additional object is to provide a gate for a cleaning basin of a boat cleaning apparatus wherein the end wall formed by the
Basinger Sherman
Costello Leo F.
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