DK172528B1 - An enclosed rubber rescue dinghy with boarding locks on both sides ('upside' and 'downside'), and with special arrangement for boarding from the sea - Google Patents

Description

- i - DK PR 172528 B1

The invention relates to a "two-sided" inflatable inflatable boat, waterproof, automatically inflatable, and equipped with entrance locks which can be entered regardless of which side of the boat faces upwards and additionally provided with a "two-sided" inflatable float device for boarding 5 from the lake. By "two sided" here and in the following is meant that the boat is designed such that it is functionally similar on both sides - "up-side" and "down-side" - ie. it doesn't matter which side turns up when the boat is launched.

10 in itself, there is nothing to say about the purely technical and quality performance of the conventional, inflatable and collapsible rubber lifeboat. This one has also since approx. 1953 has been almost exclusively on the market, especially for smaller vessels, but also to an increasing extent for very large vessels, thanks to the minimal space 15 it requires on board. However, the boat has some very fundamental shortcomings, which not least revealed the unhappy 'Estonia' loss: 1. Second every boat launched - especially in bad weather - faces the bottom, and all experience indicates that it is practically impossible even for experienced 20 swimmers to turn the boat. The problem, of course, is the greater - in fact, a disaster - whether the boat with disgraced survivors after a shipwreck should be sailing.

2. The boarding from the lake is very problematic, not to say 25 impossible without the help of others already on board the inflatable boat.

However, there are now several types of two-sided lifeboats / fleets, for example DK Patent No. 108184 and US Patent 3,037,218. These and similar two-sided boats / rafts are usually made of hard or 30 semi-hard materials, or the floating body (air-filled containers or the like) may also be joined together by a framework or assembly. These and similar boats / fleets, however, with their structural form, cannot be compactly packed in a container, such that the boat is automatically fully operational at sea launch (otherwise 35 this would of course have been done a long time ago!).

It is the object of the invention to make an automatically inflatable, two-sided, waterproof and compact foldable (in container) rubber rescue bait, which - in addition to of course meeting the requirements of the ship control - - 2 - DK PR 172528 B1 also remedies the aforementioned shortcomings of the conventional rubber rescue boat - ie In the first place, this two-sided boat must be designed to: 5 A. Enable relatively easy boarding through specially designed lock bags both directly from the wrecked ship and from the lake - even for disabled survivors of the shipwreck.

And: B. Ensures that the shipwreck will always be able to stay dry and secure 10 ("indoors") aboard the boat, even if it has to sail several times.

This is achieved by the fact that the rubber lifeboat according to the invention is designed as claimed.

In order to understand the invention, this invention will now be described in connection with the schematic drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a two-sided inflatable inflatable boat according to the invention in cross-section. A here denotes the buoyancy buoyancy rings, which consist of at least two double-walled rubber rings constructed in sections. The water-20 dense up and down sides G are assumed to be made and attached (welded) to the buoyancy rings as the "bottom side" of the conventional rubber lifeboat. B denotes the lock bags, which must be made of solid waterproof sail cloth or similar soft material, sized so that people with swim-belt can easily enter the lock. The outer entrance openings C of the lock bags 25 are sewn / welded waterproof to the up / down sides. In order to avoid sea spray and rain into the boat through the top of the lock openings (outer entrance openings), these must be able to be closed from the inside with a simple zipper or similar, but they must be open when the boat is launched. Inside the boat, the other end of the locks is attached to the bottom, e.g. using solid 30 rubber cords. Through this (open) end of the sluice the entrance into the boat also takes place - for example through a zipper opening D at the bottom of the sluice. Through the outer entrance openings, which are now on the bottom of the boat, the water will rise in the sluice to a certain height E (freeboard), depending on the amount of water displaced by the crew. However, the lock bags are waterproof well above this height (distance F), so there is no danger that the boat will be filled with water. As is well known, an inflatable boat of this type is very high, and in addition, the inside height of the boat should be at least 1.5 m for the entrance from the locks into the boat 40 itself and for the necessary freedom of movement for the crew.

- 3 - DK PR 172528 B1

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing in section a litter of a rubber lifeboat (with 4 buoyancy rings) according to the invention. Model experiments have shown that despite repeated littering with completely open outer entrance openings, no significant water enters the boat.

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FIG. 3 shows from above A and in section B an 18-man rubber lifeboat with 4 buoyancy rings according to the invention. The boarding device from the lake is not listed here. In order to minimize the mental strain for those on board, it is of the utmost importance that the boat be equipped with oars, sails and steering options, so that the navigators on board can "comfort" the other crew with the ability to sail to the nearest country. In bad weather, the crew is assumed to be seated in safety belts strapped tightly over the shoulder and back.

The sailing boat means 'just' that the crew must now crawl out 15 of the belt and put it over the other shoulder. However, all of these are known conditions for which there are solutions.

The fresh air supply can, for example, be arranged with solid rubber tubes or similar elastic material which crosses the boat and opens to the outside (not shown here). The ventilation openings must be around the center of the pipe, assuming that the openings extend well beyond the freeboard boundary. At sea, the varying water level in the downstairs entrance locks will now act as ventilation pumps. When the weather is good, the locking brackets on the inside can be loosened, the locks rolled up and the closing device for the outer entrance openings 25 opened. This will allow free access into the air. Water in the boat can easily be discharged through the downstairs entrance locks.

FIG. 4 shows a device for boarding from the lake. Anyone who has tried to get into a conventional rubber lifeboat from the lake knows how difficult this is only with a rope hanging down from the boat.

There is no way to use the leg forces because the legs - even with the feet in the bottom step of the rope ladder - slip under the boat along with the rope ladder as soon as you try to walk in the ladder. If you do not therefore have particularly strong arm forces, you simply can not lift up in the boat without assistance. This often life-or-death weakness of the conventional rubber lifeboats can be easily remedied by attaching an air-filled 'rubber mattress' 4A or similar float device between two outlets 4D from the boat buoyancy rings at the end of the boat. The fasteners 4B - e.g. solid nylon tablecloths from the outlets - 4 - DK PR 172528 B1 for the 'mattress' - must be arranged so that, while lying in the lake with your arms, you can press the 'mattress' just so far below the sea surface that you get your knee / leg over the mattress edge and can fall over up in it. This particular attachment means now that one has "firm ground" under the feet, 5 and can therefore easily rise and climb on the inflatable boat, for example by means of a rope ladder 4C. The entrance into the boat's interior then takes place through the locks as On the whole, such a boarding device from the lake will also be a prerequisite for other crew members on board the boat to be able to help disembarked helpless 10 people - and especially smaller children - into the boat (see also 4E).

Outlined boarding device must of course be made 'two-sided *, ie. that the same device can be used no matter which boat side is facing up. This is easily achieved by the tabs 4B holding the 'mattress' attached to the outlets along the horizontal center plane of the boat.

15 It is also a prerequisite that the float device is automatically pumped up at sea launch.

The outlets serve mostly as a safeguard and support measure and are strictly not necessary to obtain the necessary auxiliary device for on-boarding from the lake. By converting smaller conventional inflatables for fishing boats and other non-passenger vessels into two-sided boats with entry locks into the boat, the boarding device from the lake can in principle and without changing the shape of the boat, for example. is done as shown in FIG. 4F (top view) and 4G (side view).

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Claims (3)

1. DK PR 172528 B1 - 5 - A rubber lifeboat which is foldable, waterproof, automatically inflatable and function-ready regardless of which side of the boat turns 5 up, equipped with an inflatable floating device for boarding from the lake and with lockable entrance locks, which can be entered regardless of which side of the boat facing upwards, characterized in that the locks are made of a waterproof sail cloth or other similar soft material and that the locks extend vertically between the up and down sides of the boat, whereby one end of each lock is waterproofly connected to one side of the boat around an entrance opening to the sluice, and the other end of the sluice is attached to the opposite side of the boat, at which the sluice is provided with a slot for entering the inside of the boat. 15 Lifeboat according to claim 1, characterized in that the outer entrance openings of the locks are sewn or welded waterproof to one side of the boat and can be closed by a zipper or the like, while the opposite ends are attached to the other side of the boat by means of e.g. rubber cords. Lifeboat according to claim 1, characterized in that the float device for boarding from the lake is arranged to be inflated automatically at the launch of the boat, and that the float device is attached to the boat so that the device is functional regardless of which side of the boat turns up. and, moreover, the device is secured in such a way that one can lie up from the lake and climb on it and rise on its legs without giving it any significant notice, so that with the help of 30 a rope ladder can be climbed on the boat, for example. and from there down through an entrance lock.