Ships – Boats – boat component – or attachment – Inflatable
Patent
1993-06-29
1996-05-21
Avila, Stephen
Ships
Boats, boat component, or attachment
Inflatable
114357, B63B 700
Patent
active
055179398
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a boat and has been devised particularly though not solely as a design for a small boat which can be simply manufactured using mass production techniques.
BACKGROUND ART
In the past 30 years small boats have generally been constructed from two major materials, namely glass reinforced plastics (fiberglass) and sheet aluminium. Small fiberglass boats have the disadvantage that they are heavy and therefore difficult to handle, requiring high power and fuel for their propulsion, they are manufactured from materials which are arguably carcenogenic, they are flammable, suffer from osmosis and are difficult to repair when damaged. Aluminum boats are expensive due to the base cost of the material, are noisy in use due to wave pounding, suffer from dents and cracks in use and are prone to electrolysis.
Both fiberglass and aluminum small boats are labor intensive to manufacture and are expensive to transport to point of sale in bulk quantities. Neither fiberglass nor aluminum boats are particularly stable due to the design limitations imposed by the economic use of these materials.
A third type of small boat presently in the market is the inflatable or semi-rigid inflatable craft which has the advantage of being immensely stable and, because they can be deflated, are relatively easily transported. The main disadvantage and limiting factor of inflatable craft is that many are made by hand and are particularly expensive. If the craft are fully inflatable they usually do not ride very well in rough water as the hull bottom is relatively flat and pounds when it hits waves. If the craft has a rigid hull (semi-rigid inflatable craft), the hull is rigid and heavy and loses any ease of transport advantages of the fully inflatable craft. The flexible skirt and rigid hull are physically at odds with each other.
In prior art craft with inflatable tubes the tube surrounds both sides and the bow (and in some craft the stern as well). This has a number of disadvantages: wasted fabric offcuts; through waves (causing destructive stress in the center of the craft and impact shock to the passengers).
Attempts have been made in the past to overcome the labor intensive, and therefore expensive, method of manufacturing small boats by roto-moulding boats from various plastics materials. This method has never been very acceptable in the market place as the final product is heavy, very limited in design range and does not have a very long servicable life. Once again the end product is bulky and difficult to transport in large quantities to the point of sale.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method of constructing a boat comprising the steps of:
Preferably the thermoplastics material comprises sheet acrylic material or co-extruded acrylic and other thermoplastic material.
Preferably the hull bottom is vacuum molded from the sheet thermoplastics material.
Alternatively the hull bottom is injection molded from thermoplastics material.
Preferably the step of securing the side skirts to the hull bottom comprises bonding by way of flexible acrylic adhesive tape or glue.
Alternatively the side skirts are secured to the hull bottom by mechanical fasteners such as brackets, zip fasteners, or hook and loop tape (e.g. Velcro T.M.)
Unlike conventional craft which are built excessively rigid, stiff, strong and subsequently heavy to withstand the destructive forces of the marine environment, a boat constructed according to the method of the present invention is made entirely from lightweight, energy absorbing materials and is constructed in such a fashion that any impact encountered on any part of the craft will be dissipated throughout the craft. The entire craft flexes on impact ensuring a softer, safer ride and greatly minimizing the possibility of sustaining damage. This unique and novel feature is obtained by use of all flexible materials and adhesives, no frames or rigidizing floors and no hard fastenings.
As the craft is so light in weight, de
REFERENCES:
patent: 4545319 (1985-10-01), Ferronniere et al.
patent: 4667618 (1987-05-01), Cigognetti
patent: 4750448 (1988-06-01), Hennebutte
patent: 5228407 (1993-07-01), Cummer et al.
Life Boat Design and Development, p. 125, Dwg. No. 33 "The `Atlantic 21`Inshore Rescue Boat".
Gruhn Amanda L.
Harman Jayden D.
Avila Stephen
Tank and Pipe Welding Pty Ltd.
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