Patent Application
20050257732
None
Not applicable.
The present invention generally relates to watercraft and more particularly to a catamaran with a forward hinged underwing or bridgework lowerable at sea to insert or extract person(s), article(s), and/or equipment, into or from the water, or onto or from the land, or onto or from rock piles, rock jetties, break walls; insert or extract submarines into or from the water; assist in the efforts of homeland security, military, police and law enforcement, fire-fighting, rescue, and like operations; assist in high speed rescue excursions, including under-fire personnel recovery; assist in turbulent and turbid water rescue, including rescue and recovery from water around dams and waterfalls; assist in aircraft and aircraft personnel recovery; assist in the interdiction of illegal watercraft (smugglers, etc.) and their personnel, contrabands, materials, etc.; assist in buoy and wall servicing at the proper height; and/or provide for the roll on and roll off capabilities of wheelchairs, carts with wheel(s), and specially designed gurneys for rescue operations.
The superior nautical qualities of catamaran type watercraft are well known. Their high beam-to-length ratio and their shallow draft provide desirable stability and resistance to capsizing. In addition, some specialized catamarans offer high speed, extremely smooth ride, enhanced stability, and greater maneuverability due to their hull shape and propulsion location. This combination of improved speed, stability, ride, and maneuverability provides a unique solution to many age-old problems with the current technologies of landing craft (i.e., landing craft are very slow, unstable in comparison, difficult to maneuver, and are wet as a transport platform). Such superior nautical qualities make catamaran watercraft ideally suited for a variety of inland waterway, lake, close to shore, and open ocean tasks. Such tasks include, inter alia, those listed above. For present purposes, “at sea” means any body of water upon which the inventive catamaran can operate, including, inter alia, inland waterway, lake, ocean, sea, or like body of water.
One drawback against other vessel types relates to the superior ability of the catamaran's skipper or crewman to easily accomplish the enumerated tasks. Heretofore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,182 proposes an environmental work vessel having a catamaran hull and a pivotally mounted debris scoop mounted between the pontoons. U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,541 proposes a pontoon houseboat having capacity to receive and retain a small craft between the pontoons. In
Despite such prior proposals, there still exists a need in the art to modify a catamaran or pontoon-type watercraft so that it can easily perform the tasks listed above. It is to such need that the present invention is addressed.
A catamaran has a pair of spaced-apart pontoons, each having a forward tapered end and a rearward end. An underwing is affixed to the pontoons and spans therebetween. The underwing has a forward end and a rearward end. A platform is pivotally connected to the underwing forward end and/or rearward end and conforms to the pontoons at their forward tapered end or their rearward end, respectively. The platform also has a forward end. A power assembly (e.g., oil hydraulic, air hydraulic, cable lift, chain lift, spring loaded, gear-driven, and other lifting mechanisms) is connected to the platform for one or more of lowering or raising the platform from a stowed position to a plurality of working positions—including positions below the waterline—of the catamaran and for one or more of raising or lowering the platform back to the stowed position.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The drawings will be described in further detail below.
As described above, there is a need to be able to insert or extract person(s), article(s), equipment, into or from the water, or onto or from the land, or onto or from rock piles, rock jetties, break walls; insert or extract submarines into or from the water; assist in the efforts of homeland security, military, police and law enforcement, fire-fighting, rescue, and like operations; assist in high speed rescue excursions, including under-fire personnel recovery; assist in turbulent and turbid water rescue, including rescue and recovery from water around dams and waterfalls; assist in aircraft and aircraft personnel recovery; assist in the interdiction of illegal watercraft (smugglers, etc.) and their personnel, contrabands, materials, etc.; assist in buoy and wall servicing at the proper height; provide for the roll on and roll off capabilities of wheelchairs, carts with wheel(s), and specially designed gurneys for rescue operations which actually allow people in the water to be placed onto a gurney that is then rolled onto the deck, that when upon arrival at the shore or dock, can be rolled to the ambulance. Such “tasks” are well within the capability of the inventive catamaran disclosed herein.
At sea, extraction could involve search, rescue, and recovery missions wherein a watercraft has capsized or otherwise is in distress such that people and/or articles are in the water; turbulent and turbid water rescue and recovery in waters around dams and waterfalls; the interdiction of contraband (articles or people) at sea; as well as high speed rescue, including in under-fire conditions. A variety of other situations similarly could require the watercraft to be able to easily extract person(s), article(s), or equipment from the water or to easily insert divers or swimmers into the water.
On land, quickly inserting and extracting personnel could involve littoral warfare, Special Forces that need to be whisked ashore at a moment's notice, and other conflicts with military implications to fight the ongoing war on terrorism and the battles of the 21st century. It also could involve extracting unwary people who get stranded on rock piles and rock jetties in a rising tide.
With police or law enforcement operations, a notable advantage of this hinged underwing is the ability to provide a work area at the proper height for law enforcement officers while on patrol and while boarding other craft and equipment. During most law enforcement and interdiction operations, the bow of the patrol boat is pointed towards the area of issue, which could be another boat, Jet Ski, buoy servicing, and/or other aids to navigation (e.g., ATON), etc. Often, a common problem on most law enforcement boats is the fact that the bow is too high for the execution of many desired operations. For boarding of other craft and equipment, the bow is often too high for many small boats and jet skies. This movable bow area provides an excellent working platform for many different applications.
Regardless of the motivation, the watercraft of choice often is a catamaran, because of its superior nautical qualities, such as, for example, beam-to-length ratio and shallow draft, which provides desirable stability and resistance to capsizing. In addition, some specialized catamarans also offer high speed, extremely smooth ride, and enhanced maneuverability due to their hull shape. This combination of improved speed, stability, ride, and maneuverability provides a unique solution to many age-old problems with the current technologies of landing craft (i.e., landing craft are very slow, unstable in comparison, difficult to maneuver, and are wet as a transport platform). The catamaran's speed would be important in interdiction efforts, homeland security missions, military operations—including littoral warfare—police and law enforcement patrols, fire-fighting and rescue operations—including high-speed and turbulent water rescue, and other like applications.
Referring initially to
Catamaran 10 includes a pair of pontoons, 28 and 30, (see also
In order to provide a rescue capability, a platform, 38, is hingedly or pivotally connected to the forward edge of underwing 36. Railings, 40 and 42, extend adjacent to hinged platform 38 for safety. Referring now also to
Platform 38 also can retain an extension, 54, at its forward end, which extension can unfold or otherwise extend from platform 38 into and, perhaps, slightly under waterline 14 to aid in the ability of crewman 16 to walk onto extension 54 to insert or extract person(s), article(s), or equipment into or from the water. Platform 38 also will be seen to flare out at its forward end to follow the contour of forward tapered sections 32 and 34. Such shape results in a larger working area for platform 38 which can be especially useful when platform 38 is lowered into a working or rescue position.
Referring now to
Another example of platform 62 and extension 64's unique abilities over platform 38 and extension 54 is high speed rescue, including in under-fire conditions; the high speed is achieved because of reduced water drag and water flow over the platform 62 and extension 64 compared with platform 38 and extension 54. Of course, other construction of platforms 38/62 and extensions 54/64 are possible, as those skilled in the art will appreciate.
While the invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will understand that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims. Also, all citations referred herein are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
