Ship, especially a ferry, with a bow door

Details Ship, especially a ferry, with a bow door Ship, especially a ferry, with a bow door

1994-04-11

1995-10-31

Avila, Stephen

Ships

Mother ship, floating landing platform, and harbor

Vessel carrier

B63B 3540

Patent

active

054620023

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a ship, especially a ferry, having a bow door, which is formed by a part of the ship's hull in the bow region, which part can be upwardly tilted around a horizontally extending axis. The bow door is used to open the ship in the region of its stem, so that, in the so-called ro-ro traffic, vehicles which have driven onto the stern can leave the ship's hull in the longitudinal direction and without changing direction; naturally the entry and exit directions can be reversed.
The formation of the bow door from the entire ship's bow above the water line is known: the bow part separated from the remainder of the ship's hull by a more or less vertical section is swivelled upwardly (and forwards) around an axis, which extends parallel to the joint passing transversally from one side wall to the other. A ramp, for example, can be swivelled out through the bow opening formed in this manner so as to come to rest on a quay wall or similar.
It is clear that, in a relatively large (ferry) ship, the upward swivelling of the entire bow portion lying above the water line means that considerable weights have to be moved. This in turn requires correspondingly strong and expensive movement mechanisms and control systems. In addition, the upwardly tilted bow portion obstructs the view of the attendance crew over the entire ship's width during the approach to the berth i.e. when entering a ferry berth; on the other hand its relatively early opening is necessary, not least because of the bow door which also swivels out to the front. Therefore bow openings which consisted of two door wings, which--in the closed position forming the stem along their common edge--were swung out laterally from the side walls of the ship's hull above the water line and beneath the foredeck over a certain lateral length, have already been produced. The division of the bow opening into two door halves which are independent of one another, one of which is pivoted towards the starboard and the other of which is pivoted towards the port, has the disadvantage, not associated with the bow door discussed above, of lower stability, which necessitates corresponding measures in the locking mechanism in the closed state and also in the opening mechanism. However the fact that to open these bow doors very much smaller masses of the ship's hull have to be moved than in the case of the bow door previously described is advantageous.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to combine the advantages of one system with those of the other, whilst at the same time avoiding the disadvantages of both. The solution to this problem lies in that the bow door consists of two parts cut out of the side walls on either side of the stem beneath the foredeck and a portion of the foredeck lying thereabove, which are connected to one another and to the associated portion of the stem to form an integral insert in the ship's hull, which can be swivelled from a closed position through the cut-out section in the foredeck portion into an open position substantially above the foredeck.
The insert to be moved to open the bow door therefore, with respect to the bow opening, only consists of the side wall portions required to this extent (as in the laterally swivelling leaf door system) and also a foredeck portion, which exposes a section which is adequate for the swivelling passage of the two side wall parts. Because these three parts extending in very different planes are rigidly connected to one another, great stability is inherent to the insert which can be outwardly swivelled. And because at the same time a portion of the foredeck extending in a tight manner around the foredeck cut-out section can be connected to the side wall portions above the insert to form a ship's hull portion which protrudes around and over the insert at the front and laterally, the framework surrounding the insert (in several planes), which consists of side walls of the ship's hull and a foredeck, also possesses high rigidity, which is importa

REFERENCES:
patent: 3280777 (1966-10-01), Matzer
patent: 4135468 (1979-01-01), Kirby et al.

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