Pontoon boats are extremely useful watercraft and are extremely popular for that reason. Pontoon boats have a large flat deck surface that is comfortable to move upon. The flat deck accommodates furniture that may be placed upon it and maximizes available room for the passengers. The deck is supported by a plurality of pontoons that displace water to support the boat. That displacement of water occurs whether the pontoon boat is moving or not.
Other boats such as V-hull boats have distinct advantages over traditional pontoon boats. V-hull boats support the weight of the boat not only by displacement but also by hydrodynamic forces that occur as the boat moves through the water. These types of boats have planning hulls. Boats with planning hulls work well for higher speeds and can provide more maneuverability. This is particularly useful for pulling water skiers. Generally, the handling characteristics of a V-hull boat are superior at high speed than a pontoon boat having flat fixed pontoons supporting the deck.
Attempts have been made to provide a pontoon boat that has good high speed handling characteristics. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,950,340 and 8,186,291 attempt to provide a pontoon boat that has some features of a V-hull and a pontoon boat. In the case of these patents, the hull has a center pontoon that is lower than two outer pontoons that straddle the center pontoon. All three of the pontoons on the boats depicted in these patents are fixed with respect to the deck. When the pontoons are all fixed with respect to the deck, an engineering tradeoff must necessarily be made that will not provide suitable handling at all speeds. At low speeds, a pontoon boat with a fixed lower center pontoon may be inherently unstable. That is because having a pontoon that is low enough to be effective at high speed may not be well suited to slow operation. On the other hand, choosing good stability at low speeds with a fixed pontoon arrangement ensures that the hull will not be optimized for high-speed operation. There remains an unmet need to have a pontoon boat that is optimized for handling throughout its entire speed range.
The present invention is a pontoon boat having central pontoon located between outer pontoons. The outer pontoons are fixed with respect to the deck and the central pontoon is movably fixed with respect to the deck. The central pontoon is movable with respect to the outer pontoons and the deck between a first position that locates the central pontoon near the deck and a second position locating the central pontoon relatively far from the deck. The central pontoon is selectively fixable between the first and second positions.
Another aspect of the invention is that the central pontoon has a pitch in its first position and as the pontoon moves from its first position to its second position, the pitch of the pontoon with respect to the deck remains constant throughout its movement.
The pontoon boat 10 of the present invention has two outer pontoons 14 and a central pontoon 18 that are connected to a deck 20. The outer pontoons 14 are fixed with respect to the deck 20. The central pontoon 18 is movable with respect to the deck 20 and the outer pontoons 14. The central pontoon 18 is movable between a first position that locates it relatively near the deck 20, which is a retracted position, and a second position that locates it relatively far from the deck 20, which is an extended position.
As shown in
Each pontoon 14, 18 includes a mounting slot 30 that accommodates mounting hardware 34 that may be made from readily available off the shelf parts. Longitudinal members 38 are mounted to the underside of the deck 20. As shown, the longitudinal members 38 are C-shaped, but other shapes are possible. The longitudinal members 38 have flanges 44 joined by a web 46 that spaces the flanges 44. The flanges 44 on adjacent longitudinal members 38 face each other so that the adjacent C-shapes face each other to form a channel 40. The longitudinal members 38 can be directly connected to the deck 12, and doing so will locate the pontoons 14 in nearer proximity to the deck 20. It is also contemplated that the flanges 44 on the longitudinal members face in opposite directions with respect to the web 46 to form a Z-section and this would yield a configuration that would place the flanges 44 on the top of the longitudinal members 38 on the outside of the channel 40 yet, still provide a suitable channel 40.
The channel 40 is made to receive a pontoon mounting bracket 50. The pontoon mounting bracket 50 has a pontoon mounting surface 54 that is directly mounted to the floor 56 of the mounting slot 30 in the pontoon 14, 18. The pontoon mounting bracket 50 has vertical restraining surfaces 60 that are spaced from the pontoon mounting surface 54 and on either side of the pontoon mounting surface 54. The vertical restraining surfaces 60 cooperate with the floor 56 to form gaps 64 that accommodate the flanges 44 of the longitudinal members 38 when the flanges 44 are inserted between the floor 56 of the mounting slot 30 and the installed mounting bracket 50. As can be seen in
Installation of the outer pontoons 14 is accomplished by sliding each of the pontoons 14 onto the longitudinal members 38 that are affixed to the deck 20. The outer pontons 14 are first aligned with their stern ends 116 facing the longitudinal members 38. Each outer ponton 14 is then pushed backwardly toward the stern 120 of the boat 10. The outer pontoons 14 are moved toward the stern 120 of the boat 10 until the ends of the longitudinal members 38 nearest the bow 118 of the boat contact an end wall 126 of the mounting slot 30. The end wall 126 is located near the bow end 114 of each pontoon 14, 18. Once the end wall 126 of the pontoon 14 contacts the ends of the longitudinal members 38, a stop block 130 is affixed to the deck 20 near the stern 120 of the boat 10 and adjacent to the ends of the longitudinal members 38 nearest the stern 120 of the boat 10 to prevent forward sliding of the pontoons 14 from the boat. The stop blocks 130 are typically affixed to the deck 20 with removable fasteners. Removal of the pontoons 14, may be accomplished by removing the stop blocks 130 from deck 20, which will allow the pontoons 14 to be slid forwardly off of the deck 20. This simple removal of the pontoons 14 allows for easy servicing and replacement of the outer pontoons 14. The easy removal of the outer pontoons 14 also allows easy access to the center pontoon 18 so it may be serviced, or so that the lifting mechanisms 90 described below may be serviced.
The center pontoon 18 is mounted to the deck 20 with multiple lifting mechanisms 90. The lifting mechanisms 90 may be actuated by hydraulic cylinders, screw machine, or other types of lifting devices that move the central pontoon 18 away from the deck 20 to its second position as shown in
Each pontoon 14, 18 has a bow end 114 and a stern end 116. The bow end 114 is nearer the bow 118 of the boat 10 and the stern end 120 is nearest the stern 50 of the boat 10. During this movement the bow end 114 and stern end 116 of the central pontoon 18 are equally spaced from the deck 20 so that the central pontoon 18 remains substantially parallel to the deck 20 and parallel to the outer pontoons 14. Movement in this manner ensures that the central pontoon 18 does not alter its pitch with respect to the boat 10 and therefore, the central pontoon 18 retains the same pitch to the water as the outer pontoons 14. In other words, the angle of the central pontoon 18 remains the same with respect to the deck 20 as the central ponton 18 moves from its first to second positions. Thus, the orientation of the central pontoon 18 with respect to the deck 20 in its first position is the same orientation in the second position and at all locations between the first and second positions.
An important feature of the lifting mechanisms 90 is that they are selectively lockable at all positions between the first and second position of the central pontoon 18 corresponding to the retracted and extended position of the lifting mechanism 90 respectively. It should also be noted that the lifting mechanisms 90 are selectively lockable at their fully retracted and fully extended positions, which correspond to the first and second positions of the central pontoon 18 respectively as described above. This means that the depth the central pontoon 18 extends into the water may be changed with respect to the outer pontoons 14. The lockable nature of the lifting mechanisms 90 may be done through an actuator 94 that is a screw drive mechanism that cannot be back driven, or the actuator 94 can achieve its lockability through hydraulics that are effectively locked with valves.
The boat 10 may have its hull configured as somewhat similar to a V-Hull when the central pontoon 18 is in its second position and the lifting mechanisms 90 are fully extended. The boat 10 may also have the attributes of a traditional pontoon boat when the central pontoon 18 is in its first position and the lifting mechanism 90 is fully retracted. The ability to adapt by moving the central pontoon 18 between the first and second positions provides a boat 10 that can handle many operating situations with optimal performance. Moving the central pontoon 18 into the second position approximates a V-hull type of boat. In a typical V-hull boat, such a watercraft tends to lean inward into turns and this enhances stability. When a user of the boat 10 of the present invention intends to use the boat 10 at high speeds, he may use the lifting mechanisms 90 to locate the central pontoon 18 in its second position. When the lifting mechanism 38 is in its fully extended position, the central pontoon 18 can be eight inches below the outer pontoons 14. As such, the three pontoons 14, 18 will resemble a V in cross section as shown in
The invention is not limited to the details provided above, but may be modified within the scope of the following claims.
This application claims the benefit of the Provisional U.S. Patent Ser. No. 63/157,096, filed Mar. 5, 2021, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63157096 | Mar 2021 | US |