AU604601B2 - Rigging particularly for sailing board - Google Patents

Description

COMMONWEALTH OFr AUS TRALI PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (Original) FOR OFFICE USE 4,60 1 Class Int. Class Application Number: Lodged: 31023/84 Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority: ,Rlated Art: This document contains the amendments made under Section 49 and is correct for printing.

r "Name of Applicant: ROZENN MICHELE FRANCOISE CARN and GWENDOLINE MARIE KARINE CARN Address of Applicant: F-2915 Radennec en Loctudy, France 1 Actual Inventor(s): Address for Service: Patrick Cam DAVIES COLLISON, Patent Attorneys, 1 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000.

Complete specification for the invention entitled: "RIGGING PARTICULARLY FO SAILING BOARD" The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us 1 i; 1: la i r C C It is known that the rigging of sail boards is presently provided by means of a triangular sail threaded over c a mast which is itself fixed to the board per se by means of a C hinge. The sail is maneuvered by means of a two-part boom or "wish-bone". Such rigging is described in U.S. patent 3 487 800 in the name of Schweitzer.

This widely-used rigging is satisfactory for conventional sail boards even though its drive is not perfect, in particular because the wind causes the mast to bend and thus causes the sail to spill air and lose drive.

2 So-called "fun-boards" have recently appeared which are smaller than conventional sail boards and which do not support the user until the board is moving, thus requiring starts of the water skiing type with the user in the water.

With this type of board, the above-mentioned type of rigging makes changing tack with the wind astern difficult since at the moment of gybing the sail is edge-on to the wind: at this moment the user is likely to end up in the water unless the zCC board has sufficient way to allow the change of tack to be 0 completed.

SE European published patent application NO. 0031074 Sc (Schliebs) describes rigging for a sail board mounted on a V, hinged mast footing and comprising a closed frame which is St longitudinally symmetrical and on which the sail is set, together with a transverse maneuvering spar which bears across the frame. The top part of the frame is bowed in its plane cccC while the bottom part rests on the mast footing and is L-shaped.

C C The frame is rigid and undeformable. The presence of

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the L-shape in the bottom branches prevents deformation of the C gC frame. Given that it is not stiffened in the longitudinal direction, the frame risers have to be thick and are consequently heavy and not aerodynamic, thereby leading to poor i ,C 4: drive from the rigging.

c r The aim of the present invention is to remedy the drawbacks of known rigging and to propose rigging having improved drive in comparison with that of the prior art.

According to the present invention, rigging for a v water or land vessel comprises a mast footing adapted to be affixed to a vessel, a closed frame having a bottom portion supported on the mast footing, which frame comprises two risers mutually connected at their top and bottom portions, and a spar interconnecting the risers intermediate said top and bottom portions of the risers, a sail secured on the closed frame and having a Slongitudinal axis of symmetry, and 3 at least one cable connecting the top portions of the risers to the mast footing under tension, the risers being Sthereby bowed by the cable to give the rigging an ellipsoid shape when viewed from the front and a bowed shape when viewed from the side, whereby to define a rigging having an external convex face and an internal convex face, the sail being of lens/shaped configuration.

The resultant structure is extremely strong and rigging made in this way is rigid enough to take best advantage C C C C of the available wind energy. Preferably, the spar is disposed Ssubstantially one-third of the way up and in between the vertical risers.

r ,Each of the risers is preferably provided, at boom C C height, with a hinge. In the event of difficulty, the rigging may thereby fold and thus avoid breaking.

i Other characteristics and advantages of the invention E appear from the following description made with reference to the accompanying drawings and relating to various embodiments of the invention. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view of first rigging in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a rear view of the same rigging; C C C Figure 3 is a rear view of a sail of different shape; B C Co Figure 4 shows a particular way of mounting the sail on the vertical risers of the frame; Figure 5 shows a variant way of mounting the rigging; i Figure 6 is a horizontal section through a thick sail; A Figure 7 is a diagram showing how a thick sail is mounted on a riser; and Figure 8 is a diagram showing hinged risers.

In Figures 1 and 2, the sail 1 is suspended from risers 2 which are interconnected at their top and bottom ends 3 and 4. The bottom end 4 bears against a board P via'a hinge 16. The hinged mast footing 16 enables the rigging to move RA into any n 4 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 11 t Vcf 12 #7 t 13 t 14 c c 16 Ce C tC C C C 18 19 Ct C V C 21 C C 23 LC 24 26 C CC 27 c C 28 C C 28 c c c 29 29 31 32 33 34 36 37 38 desired position above the horizontal plane. It is known that the drive from a sail close to the surface of the water is poor because of the irregularity of air currents at this level. A degree of consistency in direction is only to be found slightly further up, and in accordance with a characteristic of the invention, the sail is rather vertical with the ratio of its height divided by its width being greater than that for an ordinary sail. Thus, the role of irregular air currents at the surface is reduced to a minimum in propelling the board. The risers 2 are tensioned by means of one or more cables 7 having tightening means (Figure 2) e.g. of the pulley-block type running between the mast footing 16 and a horizontal spar 6 disposed near the top portion of the sail. This tension is applied to the risers prior to the rigging being fitted to the board.

Depending on the need, one or two cables 8 or spars 6 prevent excessive deformation of the sail under the influence of the traction exerted by the cables 7. At man height, the rigging is held in the user's hand by means of a horizontal spar 5 which is preferably curved in the opposite direction to the direction in which the sail is curved.

This rigging is used in the same manner as conventional rigging for moving in various directions, but gybing is made easier since the sail is symmetrical so the user causes it to pass perpendicularly to the wind direction ahead of the user rather than causing it to pass through the eye of the wind, and thereby swaps the leading and trailing edges on the other tack. There is thus no loss of power during gybing since the sail is never in the plane of the wind.

Further, the concave shape of the sail increases its power and its undeformability by means of the vertical cables which constrain the tubes to act as strung bows counterbalancing the traction of the user on the boom. The risers 2 may be made of light alloy based on aluminum or on fiber glass or on carbon fiber embedded in a suitable resin.

In Figures 1 and 2, the sail is lens-shaped. A cable 8 may be mounted between the risers 2 in such a manner as to prevent them from moving too far apart in the vertical plane 89

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428 gnspe.003carn.spe,4 1 O00 o o 0000 00 0 0 00 000o0oo o oo0 0000 0 0 0000 00i 0 0 0 oo 0 0000 0 n 0 0o o 00 oe o o and thus spoiling the bowing. It is also possible to use a frame such as shown in Figure 3 in which the top portion has a greater sail area than the bottom portion with the risers 2 being interconnected at the top 3 and at the bottom 4.

Figure 4 shows how the sail 1 is mounted on a riser 2 by folding the margin of the sail to form a sheath for the riser. The sheath is fitted with closure means 31 which may be of the Velcro (trademark) type or which may be a buttoning or zip-fastening system. Spaced fastening means in the form of eyerings 27 fitted at various points along the riser 2 enable the sail to be drawn towards the end of the tube by means of cordage (not shown). The eye-rings are separately releasable to enable the sail to be folded away in selectable horizontal strips. This system of sail mounting, together with the geometrical structure of the sail, make it very easy to reduce sail area by taking in sail. All that needs to be done is to remove the top portion of the sail from the risers 2 and to roll or 15 fold it down as far as desired as shown diagrammatically at 32 in Figure 1.

In Figure 5, the rigging is constituted by a sail 1 mounted on two symmetrical risers which are interconnected at top 3 and bottom 4. The risers 2 are pre-tensioned like strung bows by means of a cable 7 which is tightened by a pulley-block 10. Substantially one-third of the way up the sail, a rounded boom 20 5 serves to manoeuvre the rigging, and the cable 7 is not connected to the boom or spar 5. The or each cable 7 passes outside the boom 5 so that the inclination of the boom serves to adjust the cable tension and consequently the hollow of the sail. The boom 5 is fixed to the risers 2 by cordage.

As mentioned above, the symmetrical shape of the rigging makes it possible to use a full or thick sail. As can be seen in Figure 6, in the symmetrical type of rigging under consideration, it is always the same face 11 of the sail which is convex, i.e. unlike a conventional single sheet sail, the functions of the faces of the sail do not change in use. This rigging is thus particularly suitable for receiving a second sheet of cloth 12 intended to constitute the concave surface and to give it a shape which, in use, is different from the shape of the convex surface 11. Further, the small thickness of the leading edge 917,GJNDAT.014,30120.res,5 AIT I; 6 1 constituted- by one or other of the risers 2 relative to the 2 thickness of conventional masts which have to be fairly 3 thick in order to withstand the forces applied thereto by 4 the sail, is favourable to air-stream lines hugging bo'h faces 11 and 12 of such the sail which consequently behaves 6 rather like an aircraft wing with little drag from the 7 trailing edge. A sail in accordance with another 8 characteristic of the invention comprises two sheets 11 and 9 12 of cloth which are connected at their ends by two sheaths 14 in which the risers 2 are contained, as can be seen on a 11 larger scale in Figure 7.

j c 12 When such a sail is in the wind, the concave sheet 12 13 is subjected to the wind over pressure and takes up a c r

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c 14 relatively shallow curve while the convex face 11 is 9; C 15 subjected to under pressure which is greater than the over Sccec 16 pressure and it therefore takes up a more marked curve C C Cc 17 following the air streams lines over the face 11. In order 18 to improve the profile of the sail, it is possible to insert 19 a filling 13 between the sheets 11 and 12 which may be a layer of plastic foam or a set of stiffeners or generally C 21 any rigid or semi-rigid material suitable for keeping the C PC 22 two sheets apart. The sheets may, for example, be sewn in 23 such a way that the tensions on each sheet do not tend to I 24 equalise, thus preventing interactions between the sheets.

Since the pre-tensioned rigging in accordance with the 26 invention is not very deformable, it is subjected to C 27 considerable forces while it lies in breaking waves when the c c 28 user has let go, after falling into the water. In order to 29 reduce the risks of breaking the risers 2, it is possible as shown in Figure 8 to provide a hinge 28 at about the level 31 of the boom 5. Thus, the cable 7 withstands forces from 32 behind going forwards while the hinge folds for forces 33 acting in the opposite direction. The hinge 28 provided on 34 each of the risers is naturally locked by a suitably rated keeper acting as a brake. As can be seen in Figure 8, the 36 rigging can, fold from a position I to a position II about 37 the hinges 28 when the forces exerted on the rigging are 38 excessive and exceed the rated force of the brake. When the 89 O428.nspe.003,carn. spe,6 -7- 1 brake is released, the hinge may be freely folded inwardly 2 thus enabling the overall length of the rigging to be 3 reduced to the height of its upper branch, i.e. to about 4 two-thirds of the total sail height. Preferably, the boom is also fitted with a hinge 29 so as to enable the rigging 6 to be completely folded.

7 The present invention may be implemented on any 8 occasion that wind force is to be used, and in particular 9 with sailing dinghies, sail boards, sail-driven land carts or "speed-sails" (registered trademark), and with wind- 11 skates.

13 S 14 I S 16 OL r 17 18 19 21 c 22 23 24 r 26 27 I t t 28 29 31 32 33 34 36 37 38 4

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890428.gnspe.003,carn.spe,7

Claims (11)

1. Rigging for a water or land vessel comprising a mast footing adapted to be affixed to a vessel, a closed frame having a bottom portion supported on the mast footing, which frame comprises two risers mutually connected at their top and bottom portions, and a spar interconnecting the risers intermediate said top and bottom portions of the risers, a sail secured on the closed frame and having a longitudinal axis of symmetry, and at least one cable connecting the top portions of the risers to the mast footing under tension, the risers being i- thereby bowed by the cable to give the rigging an ellipsoid H shape when viewed from the front and a bowed shape when viewed from the side, whereby to define a rigging having an external convex face and an internal convex face, the sail being of lens/shaped configuration.

2. Rigging according to claim 1, further comprising a ii pulley block for tensioning said cable.

S3. Rigging according to claim i, wherein said risers are connected by at least one transverse holding element fixed at both ends to the risers, two cables being tensioned between the ends of the transverse holding means and the footing of the rigging by tensioning means.

4. Rigging according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said spar is disposed substantially one-third of the way up the sail, the spar being curved with its concave side facing the side of the sail which is concave when the frame is under K At tension.

I- -9- Rigging according to any preceding claim, wherein the height of the sail is greater than its width.

6. Rigging according to claim 2, wherein said cable passes outside the spar, which is hinged to the risers.

7. Rigging according to any preceding claim, wherein said sail is constituted by two sheets, respectively a convex sheet and a concave sheet, the margins of the sheets forming sheaths for the risers.

8. Rigging according to claim 7, further comprising a filling disposed between S°said two sheets. o a o ftI 15

9. Rigging according to any preceding claim, wherein said risers are fitted .e with hinges at substantially the same height as the spar, enabling the rigging to a fold backwardly, said spar having a hinge in the middle portion thereof. Rigging according to any preceding claim, wherein said sail is threaded 20 over the risers and is held thereon by spaced fastening means which are CCCL SC 0 separately releasable to enable the sail to be folded away in selectable horizontal C C strips.

Sccc C C C

11. Rigging for a water or land vessel, substantially as hereinbefore descried with reference to the accompanying drawings. C r Dated this 17th day of September 1990 Rozenn Michele Francoise Can and Gwendoline Marie Karine Carn By their Patent Attorneys DAVIES COLLISON I RAZ3 S 917,GJNDAT.014,30120.res,9 NTO PA