US3668725A

US3668725A - Mooring buoy

Info

Publication number: US3668725A
Application number: US36089A
Authority: US
Inventors: Eberhard Renz; Siegfried Voss; Gunter Ecke
Original assignee: Weser AG
Current assignee: Weser AG
Priority date: 1969-05-10
Filing date: 1970-05-11
Publication date: 1972-06-13
Anticipated expiration: 1989-06-13
Also published as: FR2047507A5; JPS4840231B1; NL7006526A; ES379492A1; NL162982C; NL162982B; GB1286708A; DE1923955A1

Abstract

A mooring buoy wherein a horizontal pivot which is mounted in the center of an upright cylindrical buoyant body supports a freely pivotable carrier for one or more mooring hooks and is connected to the bottom by one or more chains. The carrier normally assumes an angular position in which the hook or hooks are located at the general level of the upper side of the swimming body to facilitate attachment of hawsers. The carrier is held in such position by one or more counterweights and/or by one or more floats which can form integral parts of the carrier.

Description

United States Patent Renz et a1.

[ 1 June 13, 1972 i 1 MOORING BUOY [72] Inventors: Eberhard Renz; Siegfried Voss; Gunter Ecke, all of Bremerhaven, Germany 2 1) App]. No.: 36,089

[51] Int. Cl. B6311 21/52, B63b 21/04 [58] Field of Search ..9/8; 114/230 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Bolton ..1 14/230 3,307,514 3/1967 Young ..1 14/230 3,193,318 7/1965 Guerrant .114/230 2,771,617 11/1956 Bracky ..l14/230 3,196,824 7/1965 Howard ..114/230 Primary Examiner-Milton Buchler Assistant l-Lvaminer-Gregory W. O'Connor Attorney-Michael S. Striker 1 5 ABSTRACT A mooring buoy wherein a horizontal pivot which is mounted in the center of an upright cylindrical buoyant body supports a freely pivotable carrier for one or more mooring hooks and is connected to the bottom by one or more chains. The carrier normally assumes an angular position in which the hook or hooks are located at the general level of the upper side of the swimming body to facilitate attachment of hawsers. The carrier is held in such position by one or more counterweights and/or by one or more floats which can form integral parts of the carrier.

10 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUN 13 I972 3, 668.725

saw 2 or 3 INVENTORS EBERHARD xE/vz SIEGFE/EO voss BY GUIW'ER 5c 5 ATTORNEY PATENTEDJUN 13 m2 3, 668 725 sum 3 or a FIG. 8

INVENTORS EBERHARD nan/z aga e/E0 voss GUNTER EC/(E ATTORNEY Mooamcsuov 7 BACKGROUND OF rm; INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in mooring buoys.

A mooring buoy comprises a buoyant body which swims in water and is secured to the bottom byone or more chains or the like. The buoyant body supports one or more mooring hooks which can be connected with hawsers orlike flexible elements for towing, mooring orsectu'ing a vessel in open waters, during warping and/or during docking. It is already known'to provide a substantially cylindricalbuoyant body with a horizontal pivot and with a recess provided inits top wall and serving to accommodates mooring hook. A pull rod which supports the hook is turnable on the pivot, and this pivot is further connected to the mooring rope or chain which is anchored in the sea bottom. A drawback of such buoys is that the mooring hook tends by gravity to enter the recess inthe top wall of the cylindrical body so that it must be lifted in order-to connect it with a hawser or the like. Moreover, the normal (concealed) position of the hook cannot be determined in advance and the hook cannot be automatically disconnected from-the hawser,especially if the latter is under tension and makes a small angle with the water surface. Furthermore, the tensioned hawser tends to tilt the buoyant body and thus endangers the persons on the buoy. i

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION an object of the invention is to provide a. mooring buoy wherein the hook or hooks automatically assume and remain in an optimum position for attachment of hawsers.

Another object of the invention is to provide a mooring buoy wherein the hooks are mounted in such a way that a tensioned hawser cannot tilt or upset the buoyant body, even if the hawser makes a very small angle with the water surface.

A further object of the invention is to provide a mooring buoy wherein the hook or hooks can be readily disconnected from tensioned hawsers by remotely controlled devices.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a mooring buoy which is safer for the occupants than presently known buoys and wherein the forces applied by a tensioned hawser are directly transmitted to mooring chains or The improved buoy comprises a preferably cylindric buoyant body which is arranged to float or swim on water and has a preferably flat horizontal upper side, a substantially horizontal pivot mounted preferably centrally in the buoyant body, anchoring means for securing the body to the bottom and including one or more chains or ropes and a coupling member attached to the pivot, at least one carrier freely turnable on the pivot, a saddle, yoke or an analogous holder means mounted on and preferably movable relative to the carrier, at least one mooring hook mounted on the holder means and connectable to a hawser, preferably in such a way that the hawser can be disengaged by remote control (such as by a rope or a wireless signal transmitting system), and balancing means for maintaining the carrier in such angular position that, when not connected to a tensioned hawser. the hook is readily accessible and is preferably located at the general level of the upper side of the buoyant body.

The balancing means may comprise one or more counterweights and/or one or more floats which can form integral or separable parts of the carrier.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended,

claims. The improved mooring buoy itself, however, both as to its construction and its mode of operation, together with addi- .tional features and advantages thereof, will be best understood upon perusal of the following detailed description of certain specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawing.

. smsroescarmouorn-la DRAWING FIG. I is aplan viewers mooringbuoy which embodlesone form of the invention; r

FIG.2isa vertical sectionalviewsubstantiallyssseenin the direction of arrows from the line li-ll otI-IG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view ota detail substantially as seen in the direction o farrows from the line vm-vm err-1o. 1; and

FIG. 9 is a view of a detail as in the direction ofarrow .1): in FIG. 7. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EM- BODIMENTS Referring first to FIGS. I to3, there is shown a first mooring buoy which comprises a relatively short upright cylindrical buoyant body or container 1 having a top wall 2 with a flat upper side and a bottom wall 3-with a flat underside. The top wall 2 is provided with a railing 4 open at and enclosing an area which can be reached by s iadderlb. A horizontal pivot 5 is installed in the central portion of the body 1, preferably above the water level WL. v

' The pivot 5 supports a freely 'turnable substantially dish shaped carrier 6. The normal angular position of the carrier 6 is shown by solid lines; in such the-upper portion of the carrier supports a vpivotably mounted saddle or holder 7 for a mooringhook BLThe holder 7 supports or accommo'dates a releasablelocking or retaining device 70 of any ltnown'dcsign which can be operated by a ropev and/or by other remote control means, e.g., 'a wireless sender, to release the eye of ahawser ll which is connected to a vessel, not shown. The pivot 5 is further connected with a coupling yoke 14 at the upper end of a mooring chain 13 the lower end of which is anchored in the sea bottom.

ln accordance with a feature of the invention, the lower part of the carrier 6(in its normal position) is provided with or connected to a counterweight 9 which is dimensioned in such a way that the hook b automatically assumes the solid-line position of FIG. 2 when the hawser 11 is disconnected therefrom or when the hawser is not under tension. in such position, the hook 8 is located at the general level of the upper side of the top wall 2 and is readily accessible for attachment of a haw'ser. The carrier 6 is turnable ina recess l0 which extends into the top wall 2 and is flanked'by a portion of the railing 4'. The recess 10 isdisposed substantially radially of the body 1, i.e., in a plane which is normal to the axis of the pivot 5, and extends in part into the cylindrical circumferential wall 23 of the body I. When the hawser 11 is under tension and pivots the hook 8 to the phantom-line position 8 of FIG. 2, the hook is fully accommodated in the recess 10 and the tension of the hawser is transmitted to the pivot 5 and thence to the mooring chain 13 (by way of the yoke I) so that the inclination of the body 1 need not change at all. The bottom wallJofthebody I hasaseoondreoess lflawhichcan be coplanar with the recess 10 and accommodates the yoke I when the upper end portion of the mooring chain 13 assumes the inclined position 13 shown in FIG. I by phantom lines.

It is clear that the holder 7 can support two or more mooring hooks without departing from the spirit of our invention.

The buoy of FIGS. 4 to 6 comprises a carrier 106 which is a two-armed lever. One arm of the lever 106 normally extends substantially vertically downwardly under the action of a counterweight 109 whereby the other arm of the lever maintains the holder 7 and hook 8 in the soliddine positions of FIG. 5; the hook is then located at the general level of the upper side of the top wall 2. The lever 106 is further provided with auxiliary arms 12 which nonnally maintain the holder 7 in a horizontal position. All other parts of the buoy shown in FIGS.

4-6 are identical with or analogous to the corresponding parts of the first tuoy and are denoted by similar reference characters.

FIGS. 7 to 9 illustrate a third buoy wherein a portion 2060 of the pivotable carrier 206 constitutes a float the lower part of which swims in or on water and normally maintains the hook 8 in the solid-line position of FIG. 8. The dimensions and configuration of the float 206a are such that the hook 8 automatically remains at the general level of the top wall 2 when it is disconnected from the hawser 11 as well as when the hawser is not under tension. Thus. the buoyancy of the float 206a produces a force which is equivalent to that furnished by the

counterweight

9 or 109. The remaining parts of the buoy shown in FIGS. 7-9 are identical with or analogous to those shown in FIGS. 1-3 and are denoted by similar reference characters.

Since the hook 8 is always readily accessible for attachment of the hawser, and since the hawser cannot tilt or upset the body 1, the improved buoy is safer to the persons on the top wall 2 than heretofore known buoys. Moreover, the locking device 7a can be disengaged by remote control in any angular position of the

carrier

6, 106 or 206.

it is also within the purview of our invention to provide the buoyant body 1 with two or more independently pivotable carriers each of which can support one, two or more hooks. For example, the recess 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 can be dimensioned in such a way that it can accommodate two independently pivotable carriers 6 positioned side-by-side and each supporting one or more pivotable holders 7.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features which fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic and specific aspects of our contribution to the art and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims:

I. A mooring buoy, comprising a buoyant body arranged to float on water and having an upper side; a substantially horizontal pivot mounted substantially centrally in said body;

anchoring means for securing said body to the bottom and including a coupling member directly attached to said pivot for independent movement of said coupling member and said buoyant body about said pivot; at least one carrier turnably mounted on said pivot; a holder mounted on said carrier; at least one mooring hook provided on said holder; and balancing means connected only to said carrier for maintaining said carrier in such angular position that, when not connected to a tensioned hawser or the like, the hook is located at the general level of the upper side of said body.

2. A buoy as defined in claim 1. wherein said body has a recess into which said hook extends when the carrier is.

pivoted from said angular position by a hawser acting on said hook.

3. A buoy as defined in claim I, further comprising locking means for separably connecting said hook with hawsers.

4. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said carrier comprises a lever having a first arm articulately connected with said holder and a second am, said balancing means comprising at least one counterweight on said second arm.

5. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said carrier comprises a disk-shaped member having a first portion supportingly connected with said holder and a second portion provided with at least one counterweight forming part of said balancing means.

6. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said balancing means comprises a float.

7. A buoy as defined in claim 6, wherein said float forms part of said carrier.

8. A buoy as defined in claim I, wherein said holder supports a plurality of mooring hooks.

9. A buoy as defined in claim I, wherein said body is an upright cylinder and said upper side thereof is substantially flat, said cylinder having a substantially fiat underside and further including a cylindrical wall provided with a radial recess extending into said upper side to accommodate said hook when the latter is connected to a tensioned hawser which pivots the carrier from said angular position.

10. A buoy as defined in claim I, wherein said upper side of said body is provided with a railing forming an enclosure about said hook.

i l l I.

Claims

1. A mooring buoy, comprising a buoyant body arranged to float on water and having an upper side; a substantially horizontal pivot mounted substantially centrally in said body; anchoring means for securing said body to the bottom and including a coupling member directly attached to said pivot for independent movement of said coupling member and said buoyant body about said pivot; at least one carrier turnably mounted on said pivot; a holder mounted on said carrier; at least one mooring hook provided on said holder; and balancing means connected only to said carrier for mAintaining said carrier in such angular position that, when not connected to a tensioned hawser or the like, the hook is located at the general level of the upper side of said body.

2. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said body has a recess into which said hook extends when the carrier is pivoted from said angular position by a hawser acting on said hook.

3. A buoy as defined in claim 1, further comprising locking means for separably connecting said hook with hawsers.

4. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said carrier comprises a lever having a first arm articulately connected with said holder and a second arm, said balancing means comprising at least one counterweight on said second arm.

7. A buoy as defined in claim 6, wherein said float forms part of said carrier.

8. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said holder supports a plurality of mooring hooks.

9. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said body is an upright cylinder and said upper side thereof is substantially flat, said cylinder having a substantially flat underside and further including a cylindrical wall provided with a radial recess extending into said upper side to accommodate said hook when the latter is connected to a tensioned hawser which pivots the carrier from said angular position.

10. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said upper side of said body is provided with a railing forming an enclosure about said hook.