Ships – Sail or control means therefor – Specific sail structure or arrangement
Patent
1984-12-24
1986-01-14
Blix, Trygve M.
Ships
Sail or control means therefor
Specific sail structure or arrangement
B63H 904
Patent
active
045639698
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a new type of sail for machines such as sailboards, sail carts, and sailing boats and more generally for any gliding or sliding sports such as for example skiing and ice and roller-skating.
The sails employed at the present time have for feature, irrespective of their shape, to take advantage of the force of the wind by pivoting about a vertical axis; the propelling component is then perpendicular to this axis.
A number of patents which disclose new sails capable of being adjusted in three dimensions have been filed. The oldest patent and without doubt that which best discloses the characteristics of these new sails is that filed by Rudow Rummler on Jan. 14, 1935, in the U.S.A. and having U.S. Pat. No. 2,170,914. FIGS. 1 to 10 of this patent are in particular very explanatory. Two other U.S. patents, namely U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,261 to Hugh Perrin, filed on May 15, 1968, discloses a kite sail in FIGS. 1 to 5, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,870 to Spivack filed on Dec. 9, 1975, discloses an ice-skating sail. A French Pat. No. 2,173,389 filed by Jean-Paul Lenoble in February 1972 again uses with many details and some particular arrangements essentially the same principles of the sail already well-described in the U.S. patent to Rudow Rummler. Another, U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,345 to Grey M. Gurley filed in March 1978, discloses a particular arrangement of the preceding type of sail in that it is oriented about an oblique axis fixed in the front of a boat. A German Pat. No. 2,833,616 filed by Gunter M. Voss in February 1980 relates to a specialised sail for sailboarding.
The present sail is of this new type of sail capable of being oriented about three axes so as to obtain at will propelling and lifting effects. However, in contrast to all the aforementioned patents all of which described sails having a transversely concave shape, the sail proposed by the present patent is characterised by a stable transversely convex shape of the gull-wing type. Indeed, a concave profile always has a tendency to turn round in a strong wind since if its position of equilbrium is departed from, in which position the two halves of the sail offer the same area perpendicularly to the wind, one of the halves receives more and more wind while the other receives less and less wind as opposed to a "V" convex profile which always tends to return the sail to its position of equilibrium. Further, a "V" convex profile facilitates the flow of the air, and in squalls it has a tendency to close and consequently absorbs sudden changes in the wind.
Advantageously, the sail has a rearwardly divergent leading edge, a highly curved windwardly concave central section in the vicinity of the apex of the leading edge and extending in a progressively more rectilinear manner toward the rear end, and a trailing edge which joins the two ends of the leading edge at said rear end so as to form two "V" divergent windwardly convex areas on each side of said central section. The apex of the leading edge is preferably rounded and its angle of opening is preferably of the order of 110.degree. to 130.degree..
The central section may be slightly convex and its rear end may have a dissymmetrical "S" shape.
The sail may have a supporting element spaced from the sail under the latter and two stays which forwardly diverge from said rear end and form for example an isoceles triangular system with the support bar.
Preferably, the sail comprises a frame of substantially rigid, in particular tubular, elongated elements, and a sail cloth held taut on the frame with preferably an assembly of windwardly concave pre-bent slats close to the leading edge. The connections between the frame elements may be advantageously flexible in order to facilitate a certain deformability of the sail, the shape of which is maintained by its own tension.
In order to describe well a possible assembly of the sail, it is shown at three angles:
FIG. 1 is a side view from below,
FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view,
FIG. 3 is a front view with a small rotation of the sail and
FIGS. 4 a
REFERENCES:
patent: 2537560 (1951-01-01), Wanner
patent: 4116406 (1978-09-01), Hamilton
Blix Trygve M.
Sotelo Jesus D.
LandOfFree
Sail having variable propelling and lifting effects does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Sail having variable propelling and lifting effects, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Sail having variable propelling and lifting effects will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-425714