GB1341373A - Mooring system - Google Patents

Abstract

1341373 Mooring systems WESTING- HOUSE ELECTRIC CORP 23 Oct 1972 [1 Dec 1971] 48684/72 Heading B7S [Also in Division E2] A mooring system for a navigation buoy which requires repeated deployment and retrieval comprises an anchor station 10 for placement, e.g. on a river bed 12 and an anchor device 14 which is attachable to the buoy by a cable 18 and which is releasably connectible with the anchor station 10 by co-operating latching means which may be unfastened by a weight lowered down the cable. In one arrangement (Figs. 1, 10) the latching means at the anchor station comprise an aperture 41 in a plate 40 which is supported on legs from a concrete base 30. A conical guide 36 may be provided. The latching means on the anchor device 14 comprise a pair of pivoted flukes 56, 57 which are biased apart by a spring 60 or by gravity, are able to pass through aperture 41 and have shoulders 67, 68 which engage beneath plate 40. To unlatch the latching means, a weight 74 in the form of a cylinder having a conical mouth 79 is lowered down the cable 18 to the anchor device so that it pivots the flukes inwardly allowing the anchor device to be withdrawn through aperture 41. In another arrangement (Fig. 17) a mushroom-like projection 90 is engageable by a pincers-like anchor 130. A weight 142 is lowered down the cable to spread the flukes 132, 134 to release the anchor. In a modification the pincers are opened by an inward movement of the flukes and a weight as shown in Fig. 10 is used. In a further modification, the projection is a body with hemispherical ends which co-operate with the cup-shaped jaws of the pincers. In all cases, the unlatching weight may be used to assist latching. Sonar targets such as air filled tubes 24, 84 may be attached to the anchor station, the anchor device and the weight.