CA2241512A1

CA2241512A1 - Marine rescue snare

Info

Publication number: CA2241512A1
Application number: CA 2241512
Authority: CA
Inventors: K. Craige Kellett
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1998-06-25
Filing date: 1998-06-25
Publication date: 1999-12-25

Description

The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for marine rescue, particularly in man overboard situations.
The difficulties involved in throwing out a buoyant life ring ( ~~life preserver~~ ) to a victim in distress in the water is well known. A number of devices have been contrived which are floatable weighted objects of a shape easier to throw than the simple annular life ring.
However, any devices which contemplate that the victim effectively grasp a floatable member and/or lifeline in order to be pulled to safety is subject to the limitation that the victim may be in a state of panic or shock rendering it difficult for him or her to maintain a grasp upon the device.
Retrieval/rescue devices of a different character have been devised which are in the nature of snares that can be tightened round the torso of a victim, e.g., U.S.
Patents 4,599,074 (Beckly) and 4,596,530 (McGlinn).
These typically include a rigid boom and a flexible strap capable of forming a loop for wrapping around the victim.
Upon pulling, the loop tightens around the victim for effecting a rescue. Such snare devices are not buoyant, nor meant to be thrown out freely to the vicinity of the victim. Rather, the snaring mechanism is affixed to the end of a boom or other rigid member which is extended to the person in the water.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a marine rescue snare which is buoyant and simple in construction.
A preferred embodiment of a marine rescue flotation snare according to the present invention is illustrated in drawing Figures lA to 1F. A different embodiment 10~
shown in Figure 2 still embodies the essential combination of floatation and snaring ability.

- 2 -Figure 3 illustrates the rescue of an overboard victim 12 using marine rescue floatation snare 10, thrown from a boat 14.
Figure 4 illustrates the vertical lifting by a rescue helicopter 16 of victim 12, whose upper torso is secured by a rescue snare of the kind shown in Figures lA
and 1B. The body of the snare is a length of flexible, buoyant rod of foamed polyethylene or like material of suitable length when looped over itself in use to accommodate the upper torso of the victim 12 and to be cinched snugly around the victim's chest, as shown in Figures 3 and 4.
Running axially along the centre of flexible, buoyant rod l0a is a central channel which accommodates a length of polyethylene tubing lOb running from one end to the other. Along the interior of the polyethylene tube there is threaded a strong and flexible tensile member 11. This may be made of any of a number of materials of the kind suitable for use as rescue ropes. In a preferred embodiment, the tensile member is a rope fabricated of a polypropylene core with an outer polyester sheath.
At a first end of the snare, tubing tensile member 11 is secured in a tie loop lla for a rescue rope, and at the other end to slippage or roller means llb which hold the snare in the desired loop but allow for the loop to be enlarged or contracted. In a currently preferred embodiment slippage/roller means comprises a ring of polyethylene beads which run on a looped end of tensile member 11. The bead-ring slider ilb is prevented from coming right off the end of the snare when it is opened to its maximum position by a fixed, rigid stopping member 10'c at the first, rescue rope end of the snare.

- 3 -A variation on the embodiment of Figures lA and 1B
is shown in Figures 1C and 1D, where the tensile member il extending from the stopped end of the snare is first looped into tie loop lla and thence extends into a tag line llc with a handle 11d. In a further modification illustrated in Figures lE and 1F, rigid stopping member 10'c is not longitudinally fixed relative to rod 10a, but with a selected degree of frictional engagement can be manually pulled along rod l0a against slippage/roller means ilb to cinch the loop tighter around the chest of the wearer, as desired. The adjustable snare retainer 10'c is prevented from sliding off rod l0a at the rescue rope end by a fixed abutment lOd, such as a washer secured to the end of the snare.
Referring to Figure 3, after the device 10 is thrown out to victim 12 and the victim has put his or her arms through the expanded loop of the device, pulling the rescue line 18 in the direction illustrated generally by arrow A will effect cinching of the snare around body of the victim by virtue of the free-sliding end lOd. As shown in Figure 4, this snaring is also advantageous in "vertical work" as when the victim must be lifted out of the water by a rescue helicopter. For this purpose, the rescue device may optionally be provided with a cradle strap 20 attached by a separate line 20a to the tow-rope end of rescue snare 10.
Figure 2 illustrates a variant embodiment 10' of the snare according to the present invention, in which the main portion of the loop is a flexible rod 10'a of a flexible, buoyant nature, which may be, for example, fabricated of the same material as the semi-rigid, non-resilient, buoyant cable which is the subject of the present applicant's U.S. Patent No. 5,370,434. A portion of the length of the snare intermediate the tie-rope end 10'c and a sliding ring and 10'd is a rigid bar 11' which serves as the loosening-tightening track along which

- 4 -sliding member 10'd is free to move. Like the embodiment of Figures lA to 1D, the snare of Figure 2 has the ability to be attached to a rescue rope and thrown to a victim. Once around the victim the snare can be tightened up to secure a rescue link with the victim and to keep him or her afloat.