US2415605A - Releasable fluke anchor - Google Patents

Description

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I RELEASABLE FLUKE ANCHOR Filed Oct. 28, 1946 INVENTOR. Roy .EJVewby Patented Feb. ll, 1947 NKTED STATES 2 Claims.

This invention relates to anchors and it is the primary object of the invention to provide a means for releasing the fluke or flukes of the anchor if per chance they should become snagged or fouled on or under some object, If often happens that anchors, particularly on lighter boats, will become snagged or iouled on an object which renders it very diificult to raise the anchor.

The present invention contemplates the provision of a means for holding the fluke in its anchoring position against the pull of the boat occasioned by the drift of the current or wind, but in which the anchor may be released in the event it should become snagged or fouled on any object.

A further object of the invention is to produce a practical device and one Which will be exceedingly effective for the purpose for which it is designed.

These objects are accomplished by means of such structure and relative arrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the following specification and claims.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of the improved anchor.

Figure 2 is an end elevation, partly in section, showing the anchor with the fluke in its normal anchoring position.

Figure 3 is a. similar View to that of Fig. 2 showing the position the fluke assumes when the releasing mechanism is called into play.

Figure 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing a modified form of attaching the releasing means to the anchor.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference on the drawing, the numeral l designates a hollow shank on the bottom of which is transversely disposed a bearing sleeve 2. 3 are the flukes which are provided with a bearing pin 4 journaled in the sleeve 2. The shank l is provided with an orifice in a top bushing 5 and a bottom orifice 5. The pin 4 is provided with a semi-circular slot 1 which is normally in register with the bottom orifice 6 when the fiukes 3 are in their normal anchoring position.

8 is a pull rod normally projecting through the bushing 5 and orifice 0 and into the slot 1 and held in that position by means of a spring 0 which is interposed between a cross pin. it on the rod and the top of the hollow shank The rod 8 has an eye H at its upper end for connection with any suitable cable 82 through the medium of which the anchor is normally raised and lowered.

When the anchor is in normal use the flukes 3 are held at the proper angle to the shank l for the reason that the lower end of the rod 8 engages in pin 4 at one end or the other of the slot '1; the compression of spring 9 urging the rod in a direction to cause such engagement. Under ordinary tension on cable I2, by the pull of the boat, the rod 8 does not retract from the pin 4, against the compression of spring 9, for the reason that such pin, under the rotative influence of the fiukes, tends to turn but cannot do so as it is locked against the lower end of the rod. Consequently the rod is urged laterally in a direction to effectively bind the same in the bushing 5 and bottom orifice 6. When the anchor is to be raised and a pull on the cable l2 indicates that the flukes 3 are snagged on some object, the cable i2 is first released or slacked sufficient to permit of the shank I swinging in one direction or the other to free the engagement between the lower end of the rod 8 and the pin 4, which in turn releases the hind of said rod 8 in the bushing 5 and bottom orifice E. Thereafter a quick jerk on the cable 12 frees the rod 8 from the pin 4, against the compression of spring 9. With the lower end of the rod so disengaging from the slot 1, the pin 4 is free to rotate. Then when the pull on the cable I2 is continued the ensuin pressure of the flukes 3 on the object 13 will cause the pin c to revolve and turn the fluke from the anchoring position shown in Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. 3 where it will be in line with the pull on the cable l2 and rod 8 and thus allow the entire anchor assembly to be withdrawn from contact with the object It.

In Fig. 4 there is shown a slight modification of the invention for use on heavier types of anchors from that shown in the other figures. In this form the solid shank M is connected directly with the hollow sleeve I5 and the assembly 15 embodying the invention described above is formed to one side of this rigid shank I i. Thus a heavier cable may be connected to the shank Hi and a lighter cable Il may be connected to the lift rod in order to efiect a release of the turnable journal pin E8, the operation being otherwise the same as previously described.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that there has been produced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects of the invention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferred construction of the device, still in practice such deviations from such detail may be resorted to as do not form a departure 3 from the spirit of the invention, as defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention the following is claimed as new and useful and upon which Letters Patent is desired:

1. An anchor comprising a tubular shank, a transverse bearing sleeve at the lower end of the shank, a fluke, a bearing pin on the fluke journaled in the sleeve, the pin being provided with a substantially semi-circular slot opening through the side thereof transversely of its lon-V gltudinal axis, a pair of alined orifice in the ends of the shank, the slot in the bearing pin being normally in register with the lower orifice when the fluke is in operative position, a pull rod normally projecting through the orifices and into the slot, and yieldable means associated with the rod to permit its withdrawal from the slot.

2. A structure as in claim 1 in which the yieldable means consists of a cross pin through the rod normally resting adjacent the bottom of the hollow shank, and a compression spring interposed between the pin and the upper end of such 7 hollow shank.

ROY E. NEWBY.

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