EP0155778B1

EP0155778B1 - Rapid river ride boat

Info

Publication number: EP0155778B1
Application number: EP85301271A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Robert Spieldiener; Reinhold Spieldiener; Alfons Saiko
Original assignee: INTAMIN AG
Current assignee: INTAMIN AG
Priority date: 1984-03-01
Filing date: 1985-02-26
Publication date: 1990-10-24
Anticipated expiration: 2005-02-26
Also published as: JPS60209385A; DE3580177D1; EP0155778A2; EP0155778A3; JPH0749275B2; ATE57662T1

Abstract

A circular floatation vehicle (10), particularly for rafting as an amusement ride, the vehicle (10) having an annular tube 12 with a circular platform inset (14), wherein the platform inset (14) is constructed with a central contoured core (32) to seat a plurality of occupants around the core (32), whereby the core provides a common back rest (38) and seat (34), allowing the occupants to be seated around the core (32) facing outward from the center of the floatation vehicle (10) for improved visibility and safety.

Description

This invention relates to a recreational raft, particularly to a flotation vehicle suitable for an amusement ride.
In an amusement raft known to us as previously proposed, an annular bladder supports a centre shell having seats peripherally spaced around the outer rim of the shell. In this configuration occupants are coated around the raft in a manner that they all faced toward the centre. While this arrangement has certain advantages in maximizing the seating capacity and enhancing passenger communication, it has been found that significant disadvantages exist in the operation of this amusement raft. Because such raft is designed primarily for amusement and not for sport, the raft must be designed to be as safe as possible. With passengers facing inward, an abrupt impact of the vehicle against an object in the water course, could cause the unwary occupant, whose back was to the object, to fall out of the raft, or, suffer an injury to the back or to the head. The stability of the vehicle is also diminished.
By the weight being distributed around the periphery of the raft, sudden shifts in distribution of the weight may cause excessive tipping.
Additionally, the enjoyment of the ride is somewhat diminished by the inability of the occupants to directly see outward from the vehicle, or react immediately to a perceived threat of danger, whether real or imaginary.
These disadvantages in that proposed design of raft have been avoided by the improved design of the circular amusement raft hereof and that includes additional desirable features as described hereafter.
In connection with the application, closest prior published teachings are considered to be in US patent specification No. 4367689 and Japanese patent specification No. 58063588. The former discloses a recreational craft corresponding to the features of the first part of claim 1 having a rigid housing mounted on a circumferential flotation tube and having two diametrically opposed swivelling passenter seats normally facing inwardly towards each other and two diametrically spaced swivelling motors with propeller supports shafts passing through the bottom of the housing. The latter discloses a fishing craft having a polygonal floating body with an outer wall spaced from a foot-well from an inner raised seating provision about a central fish-keep through-well from which projects a vertical parasol support. Users always facing outwardly for the purposes of this application the aforesaid US published patent specification is taken as closest prior art.
According to one aspect of this invention, there is provided a flotation vehicle comprising an annular float outside an inner inset part supported by said annular float, the inset part affording a plurality of seats for passengers, characterised in that said inset part has a central core with its seats uniformly disposed around and only backing onto said core thereby affording accommodation for passengers only facing outwards and with their backs against said core.
According to a preferred embodiment of this invention, such a flotation vehicle is further characterised by said inset part having an outer rim adjoining said annular float and presenting raised splashguard portions in front of said seats, respectively lower entry portions between said splashguard portions.
A flotation vehicle of this invention preferably comprises a circular amusement raft with an outer annular float which may be a tube, preferably a deformable, air-filled bladder, and an inner circular inset flotation platform. The inset platform underlies a contoured seating core constructed to seat a plurality of occupants with their backs to a raised central hub and their feet positioned around an outer rim which may have at least one step.
This seating arrangement provides certain distinct advantages. Occupants look outward from a central position, greatly enhancing their field of vision and preparation for vehicle impact with objects in the water course. The central seating arrangement distributes a major portion of the passenger weight at the centre of the vehicle. This stabilizes the vehicle particularly where the vehicle is not fully occupied, yet makes the vehicle more responsive to waves and rotational forces which impart a spin to the vehicles, an important aspect of the amusement ride.
The reduction of angular inertia is also of importance during the run through the course, where friction of boats touching the sides of the river causes tangentional forces to deliberately provide added spin to enhance the ride's excitement. These and other features, including engagement of the annular float with the flotation platform, preferably at a flat portion of the former, raised backrest portions of the central core that may be padded, provision of raised guard rails and alternating entry portions, will become apparent from a consideration of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment.
The invention will now be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings of which:-

Fig. 1 is a top view of the flotation vehicle of this invention;
Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken on the lines 2-2 in Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the lines 3-3 in Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 is a cross sectional detail.

Referring to Fig. 1 the top view of the flotation vehicle of this invention, designated generally by the reference numeral 10, illustrates the central seating concepts of this invention, as applied to an amusement raft designed for four passengers. It is understood that equivalent vehicles of different seating capacity or of different arrangement within the scope of this invention can be fabricated by those skilled in the art.
The preferred embodiment of the flotation vehicle 10 is constructed with an outer annular float 12 and an inner circular inset 14. The annular float 12 may be fabricated from an air filled rubber of special shape, or a shell with air bag. The annulus 16 has abrasion resistant surface, with protective wear strips 18 fastened to the outer surface of the annulus to guard against scrapes. The annulus may be foam filled or air filled, as shown with air valves 20 positioned around the annulus.
The circular inset 14 combines two primary components, a circular floatation platform 22 and a contoured passenger shell 24. The floatation platform 22 is constructed with a water impervious foam disk 26 that has a fiberglass covering 28 and a fiberglass rim 30 or a rim fabricated from other adequate structural material.
The passenger shell 24 is preferably fabricated from a single formed synthetic, such as fiberglass to minimize water leakage and to maximize strength. A special novelty feature is the friction connection of the float annulus to the fiberglass shell. The bouncing of the vehicle in the water in waves causes considerable forces between the air inflated circular float and the fiberglass passenger shell. To cause better adherence between inflated rubber tube and fiberglass shell, the inside of the otherwise circular cross section has a flattened portion 60 as shown in Fig. 2.
This flattened inside portion 60 of the tube causes increased forces applied against the surface of saddle 61, in turn causing a better friction connection between the circular floating tube and the fiberglass body of the passenger shell.
In a circular tube, air pressure inside causes equally spaced forces all around towards the outside, Fig. 4 forces "a". These forces are counteracted by the elastic stretch of the inflated rubber, the tangential forces "b". Such produce in turn, the counteracting radial forces "c". All these forces occur uniformly all around the tube circumference in a normal underformed annulus.
With the tube flattened around the inside, the air pressure produces the outward acting forces "a" all around. The flattened portion of the rubber, however, cannot produce the tangential forces of the stretched rubber of a pure circular configuration. The counteracting forces "c" are therefore not produced within the rubber wall and the forces "a", will tend to bulge the flattened surface outward to produce the balanced circular shape again. At this point, however, the flat rubber portion is pressed against the equally flat fiberglass saddle and the fiberglass restraint, produces the counteracting forced "d". The balancing force is therefore created at the contact of the rubber and fiberglass surfaces. This results in a greater friction force between rubber and fiberglass resulting in a better friction connection between inflated rubber tube and fiberglass passenger shell.
The passenger shell 24 has a central seating core 32 with four contoured seats 34 and a raised center hub 36 with four contoured padded back rests 38. The seating core may easily be designed for six eight or any number of passengers by altering the polygon configuration or by use of circular back rest and concentric seat bench.
As shown in the cross sectional view of Fig. 2, a passenger, shown in phantom, is comfortably seated on the seating core with his feet on the floor 40 of the shell, or on a contoured rim 42 which abuts the annular float 12. For safety and for the purpose of providing a splash-guard, the rim 42 in front of the passenger has a raised section 44.
A hand rail 46 disposed in front of the passenger has a rotational hand segment 48 supported by two vertical posts 50 and two reinforcement struts 52 connected to the raised section 44 of the rim. Referring to the cross sectional view of Fig. 3, the section of the passenger shell between adjacent seats is shown to include a step 54 to assist in boarding or departing the vehicle. The splashguard and rail are eliminated in these sections in the preferred embodiment for simplicity. However, in other embodiments a folding splashguard and/or a guard rail can be installed to allow access and provide an added degree of safety.
While in the foregoing embodiments of the present invention have been set forth in considerable detail for the purposes of making a complete disclosure of the invention, it may be apparent to those of skill in the art that numerous changes may be made in such detail without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention.

Claims

1. A flotation vehicle (10) comprising an annular float (12) outside an inner inset part (14) supported by said annular float (12), the inset part (14) affording a plurality of seats for passengers, characterised in that said inset part.(14) has a central core (32) with its seats (34) uniformly disposed around and only backing onto said core (32) thereby affording accommodation for passengers only facing outwards and with their backs against said core (32).

2. A flotation vehicle as claimed in claim 1, characterised by said inset part (14) having an outer rim (42) adjoining said annular float (12) and presenting raised splashguard portions (44) and lower entry portions between said splashguard portions (44).

3. A flotation vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein said inset part (14) includes at least one step (54) in said low entry portion of said rim (30).

4. A flotation vehicle as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein said inset part (14) is coupled to an underlying flotation platform (22).

5. A flotation vehicle as claimed in claim 4, wherein said flotation platform (22) is circular with an outer periphery (30) engaging the inner portion (60) of said annular float (12).

6. A flotation vehicle as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein said annular float (12) is ringshaped with an inner portion of the tube deformed into a flat portion (60) to produce greater friction forces against said float platform (22).

7. Aflotation vehicle as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said annularfloat (12) comprises an air inflated tube.

8. Aflotation vehicle as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said annular float (12) comprises a rubber outer shell with air bag.

9. Aflotation vehicle as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein in said core (32) is raised to provide passenger backrests (34).

10. A flotation vehicle as claimed in claim 9, wherein said centre core backrests (34) are padded.

11. A flotation vehicle as claimed in any preceding daim,wherein said vehicle (14) included guard rails (48) disposed in front of said seats (34).

12. A flotation vehicle as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said inset part (14) is an integral structure centrally seated on said annular float (12).

13. A flotation vehicle as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said annular float (12) has a plurality of air valves.