FR2473005A1 - Marine vessel keel with variable cross section - has flexible covering and inflatable bags in keel section reinforced by sliding cross beams - Google Patents

Abstract

The boat keel is made from flexible material mounted on a frame and has an aerofoil section with a fixed central beam. The aerofoil is fitted with cross beams which move in slots in the central beam, so that the ends of the cross beams move accordingly. The section is fitted with two inflatable bags, one mounted on each side of the central beam. The sides of the keel may be moved by inflating and deflating the bags, to vary the section of the keel.

Description

The present invention relates to anti-drift planes located under the hull of a ship sailing.

In known devices of this kind, this plane consists of an underwater appendage, in the axis of the building, called a keel.

This keel is intended to prevent the boat from drifting, crosswind; It is generally fixed; I1 is also mobile, the keel then pivoting on an axis or rising in an inner well. Good weighted it takes the name of "drift".

 uille or "drift", this appendage is essential to the jump of a sailboat. Its design is calculated to have the best performance on advancement and the worst on lateral drift.

 It is to increase this sought-after anti-drift quality that some have tried, by adding a thin orientable flap, fixed on the rear edge of a narrow and deep keel, to control the water nets at will and control their flow, these adjustments should make it possible to modify, in better, the trajectory of the boat and to improve the dynamic lift of the keel.

However, it seems that a brake effect was also obtained, canceling the improvements expected.

te device according to the invention allows' avoid these disadvantages
With it, in fact, it becomes possible to modify the work of a keel in action in the water, without adding added external equipment.

The device, object of the invention, always comprises inside a hollow keel, a mechanism capable of deforming, gradually and on demand, its profile in its horizontal and vertical sections, and thus making it asymmetrical at will. . This without causing turbulence or untimely turbulence.

The accompanying drawing illustrates, by way of example, one of the embodiments of the device according to the present invention.

As shown, here in section, the device has a vertical plane I, fixed, one end 2 of which is rounded and bulky and the other 3 thinned and tapered. A tube 4 rotates vertically inside the plane I and controls the eame 5, mobile like it. This cam 5, straddling the axis of the drawing is in permanent contact with the thin walls of a deformable envelope 6; Deformable, because retained in solidarity with plane I at point 3, it is free to slide in 2, which it bypasses.

Connection legs 7 connect the walls of the casing 6 to each other, keeping them at constant height, through the plane I by lights 8.

At rest, the cam 5 being in the axis of the drawing, the walls of the casing 6 are symmetrical; But when the tube 4 is turned, the “painted” end of the cam 5 then pushes outwards, by closing, one of the walls of the envelope 6. This stressed wall @ necessarily causes the other in the same direction thanks to the connecting legs 7 which slide freely in the guides 8 and to the back of the cam 5 calculated fear not to be obstaelfe.

This envelope 6 can be made asymmetrical on the other side if desired, and in the same proportion, by simple reversal of the movement controlled by the cam 5 by the tube 4, its deformation being by the fact always authorized that it does not is never retained at point 2 of frietion, where it can rip.

the asymmetry is therefore controllable at will and reversible.

The device, object of the invention, can be used in all cases where the advantages of an asymmetrical keel or thick fin can be sought. It can be used for all sailboats. Particularly interesting is the use of the EXTRADOS and INTRADOS type curvatures which it authorizes in the case of regattas or races at sea or in the river, because of the gain in "heading" that can be counted and the tactical adjustments that it will allow skippers of sailing boats, and other yaehts.

Claims (4)

 CLAIMS.  at will as to its horizontal and vertical profiles.  1 @ Device allowing a sailboat keel to be modified  ear, allowing it to be deformed, from the inside, according to new asymmetrical curvatures, on one side or the other.  @ characterized by the fact that it includes a means incorporated into the 2) Device according to claim I,  Car @ ctérisé by the fact that this incorporated means intended to leave  cause this deformation is constituted by a thimble envelope  formable surrounding a fixed and rigid plane, being retained with it only on the rear edge, refined, but remaining free to circumvent the front edge, rounded, of the plane, by sliding. Characterized also by the fact that this deformable envelope has its side walls, on either side of the fixed track, retained integral with one another, and equidistant, nar of the connecting legs which slide by lights through the plane. 3) Device according to claim 2  Characterized by the fact that to provoke the desired deformation  new set just a direct push on one  walls or indirect on one or more connecting legs, in one direction or the other. 4) Device according to claim 2,  Characterized by the fact that this device is controlled by us  sée can be manual or automatic, that the selected system can  be mechanical, pneumatic or hydraulic or a combination of several systems, the essence of the invention being in the preparation brought to the ear to be d4f.ormed and not in the mode selected to cause the deformation.