Ships – Sail or control means therefor – Reefing and furling
Patent
1999-01-19
2000-11-14
Avila, Stephen
Ships
Sail or control means therefor
Reefing and furling
114107, B63H 904
Patent
active
061454605
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a furling boom for a yacht.
A problem that has beset sailors of modern yachts, is the difficulties and awkwardness associated with manually raising, reefing and furling of the mainsail. Attempts have been made to provide mechanically assisted furling devices for booms, with mixed success. Two prior art device are shown in Australian Patent no. 613630 and 636472. These devices require the drilling of a hole completely through the mast, for the drive shaft of the furling device, which weakens the mast.
The present invention seeks to ameliorate problems associated with the prior art furling devices. In one broad form the present invention provides a furling boom comprising: drive take off and a boom support; boom support, and having its opening facing upwardly; a universal joint to said drive take off, and at its other end by a rotating axle pivotally connected to the free end of the boom, whereby the foot of a sail is connected to said mandrel and furled thereabout upon rotation of said mandrel; and
The drive unit could be electric, rope haul, hydraulic or manually operated, and preferably includes a manual over ride in the case of breakdown of the motor.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 shows a cut away side view of an embodiment of the present invention, affixed to a mast of a yacht;
FIG. 2 illustrates a cut away view of the furling boom as shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 illustrates a cross sectional view of the boom as shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 illustrates an auto ratchet release according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 shows in detail one embodiment of the auto sail foot tensioner, according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 illustrates an auto tack tensioning means according to another embodiment of the present invention, in a first position;
FIG. 7 illustrates the auto tack tensioning as shown in FIG. 6, in a second position;
FIG. 8 shows schematically a manual outhaul for the all clew swivel according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIGS. 9 & 10 illustrate schematically a manually operable over ride for an electrically or hydraulically driven embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 11 shows schematically a swivel wedge for attachment of the sail to the mast.
As shown in FIG. 1, one embodiment of the present invention comprises a drive housing (1), which is adapted to be mounted onto the mast (2). The drive housing (1) reinforces the mast (2) at the connection of the boom (3). The boom (3) is connected at its end casting (4) by a universal joint (5), in this case a goose neck swivel, to the boom support (6) on the drive housing (1).
The boom (3) as shown in FIG. 3 comprises a lower boom extruded section (13), two common extruded side sections (7), and two common top extrusion (8). These are cut to the desired length of the boom. The height and width of the boom (3) is determined by cutting the arms (9) and (11) of the side sections (7) to the desired lengths, and sliding the arm (9) into the slot (10) and the arm (11) into the slot (12). The arms (9 & 11) are secured in the respective slots (10 & 12) by any suitable means, such as riveting through the grooves (14). A decorative strip (not shown) is then slid along the grooves (14) to hid the rivets. The cut along the arms (9 & 11) could be tapered to provided a tapered furling boom as less sail wraps around the mandrel (17) the further away from the mast (2), due to the triangular shape of the sail (21).
An open end c-shaped casting (4) is connected to the mast end of the boom (3) and a closed end casting (15) is connected to the free end of the boom (3). The reinforced corners (16) provide torsional and bending stability for the boom (3).
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the mandrel (17) is connected by a universal joint (1B), to the drive take off (19) of the drive housing (1). A rotating cone (20) made of any suitable material, such as nylon is placed over the forward part of the universal joint (18). The co
REFERENCES:
patent: 4116152 (1978-09-01), Larsson
patent: 4503797 (1985-03-01), Maurin
patent: 5640919 (1997-06-01), Huisman
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