The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description of certain exemplary embodiments is exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.
As best seen in
The tell-tale 18 is comprised of a waterproof fabric strip 34, such as nylon, that has a flexible array of light emitting diodes (LED's) integrated into the fabric. In particular, it is seen that the array includes LED's 36, 38, 40, 42, and 44 that are arrayed in a single row along the length of the fabric strip. The fabric strip 34, with the integrated LED's is available from Royal Philips Electronics, N.V., of the Netherlands as a “photonic textile”. The LED's are miniature light sources, available in many colors, and the fabric material covering the LED's naturally diffuses light emitting from the LED's so that the visual effect is to provide a well lighted fabric material which nonetheless retains the soft look and feel of fabric.
Electricity is conducted to the tell-tale strips by foil conductors that are embedded within adhesive backed plastic strips which adhere to the jib 12. In particular, a main conductor 48 extends along the leading edge of the jib 12, and includes a copper or aluminum foil strip 52 and a foil strip 54 that run parallel with one another and are encapsulated within a polyester jacket having an acrylic adhesive coating one side thereof so that the main conductor 48 may be readily attached to the jib 12 by adhesive bonding. Conductor 48 is commercially available in clear, black, and white colors from Fuller Manufacturing, Inc, Burbank, Calif. 91506 and sold under the trade name Taperwire, and is available with either flat strip or round wire conductors.
As seen in
Referring to
If desired, the port side tell-tale 18 includes a flexible array of red color emitting LED's and the starboard side tell-tale 30 includes a flexible array of green colored LED's. Accordingly, the observer may readily distinguish between the port and starboard side tell-tales when observing from one side of the sail as enabled by the transparent window 28. During the day light hours the tell-tales will not be illuminated and will appear as conventional flexible fabric tell-tales.
Referring again to
The foregoing description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations thereof are intended to be within the scope of the invention. For example, the tell tales may have an array of LED's in any pattern or arrangement or number that provides the desired level of illumination. Thus depending upon the size and lighted intensity of the LED's, and the desired size of the tell-tales, the LED's may be arranged in an array that has a single row or double row of LED's. The LED's may be colored as desired by the boat owner to personalize the boat. If desired, the tell-tales 18 and 30 can be offset in height on the jib 10, and each will be connected to the conductor 48 by separate rivets. In addition, other style electrical connectors available in the industry may be employed as an alternative to the rivets shown in the drawings.