GB2086547A - Halyard stopper - Google Patents

Abstract

A halyard stopper has a locking assembly comprising a spring pawl (27) pivoted within at (28) within a U-section rocker arm (16) and movable between a locking position in which it grips a halyard or other rope (52) (Figure 3, not shown) and a release position. As a shoulder (48) of the lever (18) on raising of the latter clear the free end of the arm (16), the arm rotates upwardly about (10) under the action of a torsion spring (42). This rotates the paw (27) clockwise against the action of its spring (46) as it engages an abutment (26). As a result, the pawl (27) is lifted away from the halyard with little movement in the direction opposite to that of the force acting on the halyard. Should the arm (16) become jammed and the force of the spring (42) be insufficient to lift it clear of the halyard, an arm (54) of the lever (18) will engage the underside of the arm (16) and so raise the arm. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Halyard stopper The present invention relates to halyard stoppers.

These are used, for example, where a halyard is pulled by a winch to hoist a sail or perform some other work. The halyard stopper is fixed in position near the winch with the halyard extending through the stopper. Once the halyard has been wound sufficiently onto the winch, the halyard stopper is operated to hold the halyard against the strain. This allows the halyard to be unwound from the winch which is then free to do work on a different halyward or rope.

In one very simple halyard stopper, a manually operable lever has a cam the peripheral surface of which comes nearer two an abutment portion as the lever is rotated. The halyard extends between the cam and the abutment portion. When the halyard is to be locked in position, the lever is rotated to bring the cam closer to the abutment portion so that the halyard is squeezed between them. The stopper is arranged so that the direction of the force acting on the halyard tends to pull the cam towards the abutment member to achieve a wedging action against movement of the halyard in the direction of the force. This has the disadvantage that the halyard has to be pulled a small distance againstthe action of the force before the lever can be rotated to release the halyard.Sometimes the effort required to do this is much greater than the effort involved merely in restraining the halyard from being moved too quickly by the force acting on it, for example when a sail is lowered.

A different construction of halyard stopper has been proposed which overcomes this disadvantage.

In this construction, a cam portion is arranged to be lifted away from the halyard for release thereof by operation of a hand lever, with little or no movement of the cam in the direction opposite to that of the force acting on the halyard. Components of the stopper are spring-loaded to urge the cam away from the halyard. When the stopper is used to lock the halyard against movement, a portion of the lever prevents the spring-loaded components from moving the cam away from the halyard. When the lever is rotated for release of the halyard, that portion is moved away from its obstructing position to allow the spring to act on the components and move the cam.

This construction may still suffer from failure if the force acting on the halyard is very great, so that frictional forces between the various components of the stopper are correspondingly large, or if the spring or one of the components becomes jammed because of dirt, or displacement or some other reason. The relatively weak force of the spring may be insufficient to unjam the stopper in these circumstances.

It is an aim of the present invention to overcome this problem. With this aim in view, the present invention is directed to a halyard stopper in which a manually operable lever is capable of acting positively on a locking assembly of the stopper to urge it away from a locking position for release of a halyard.

This allows the full force of a person's arm acting through a lever to be exerted on the locking assembly if necessary, thus reducing the likelihood of permanent jamming and making the stopper much safer.

An example of a halyard stopper in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side view of the halyard stopper with a side plate removed to reveal its inner components, the stopper being in a state for release of a halyard; Figure 2 is a side view of the stopper shown in Figure 1, the stopper being in its locking state.

Figure 3 shows the same view as Figure 2 but with a halyard extending through the stopper; Figure 4 is an underneath view of the complete stopper.

Figure 5 is a view of the inner side of a side plate of the stopper.

Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view of a rocker arm of the stopper taken in the plane VI-VI indicated in Figure 2; and Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view of a spring pawl of the stopper taken in the plane VII-VII indicated in Figure 2.

Two arbors 10 and 12 of the halyard stopper extend between and secure together two plastics side plates only one of which is shown in Figure 1, and is labelled 14. The other is absent from the drawing to reveal the working parts of the stopper. A rocker arm 16 is pivotally mounted on the arbor 10 and a manually-operable lever 18 is pivotally mounted on the arbor 12. A square-sectioned bar 20 is held firmly in the stopper by two bolts 22 and 24 which also secure the lower ends of the two side plates. Respective halves of an abutment 26 extend inwardly from the insides of the two side plates meeting in the central plane of the halyard stopper.

This provides an abutment extending across the complete width of the stopper whilst allowing each half of the abutment to be formed as an integral part of one of the two side plates, from the said mould.

As shown more clearly in Figure 6, the rocker arm 16 is made from a metal plate stamping bent over to have a U-shaped cross-section. Referring both to Figure 1, a spring pawl 27 is pivotally mounted on a stud 28 which extends between the side portions of the rocker arm 16. The spring pawl 27 has a toothed arcuate portion 30 with the teeth directed towards the square-sectioned bar 20. As is shown in Figure 7, it also has a channel 32 in its upper portion. This is positioned in the central plane of the stopper, and leaves two flanges 34 and 36 with aligned transverse holes 38 and 40 through which extends the stud 28.

The assembly is biased towards the relative positioning shown in Figure 1, for release of a halyard, by a torsional spring 42. This has one end pressing against the bottom of an abutment portion 44 of the side plate 14, a central portion looped around the arbor 10, and its other end pressing upwardly against the inner underside of the cross portion of the rocker arm 16. Thus the spring 42 urges the rocker arm 16 to rotate in an anti-clockwise sense about its arbor 10 with the stopper viewed as in Figure 1, tending to raise the rocker arm 16.

Another torsional spring 46 has one end pressing downwardly against the base of the channel in the spring pawl 27, a central portion looping the stud 28, and its other end pressing upwardly against the inner underside of the cross portion of the rocker arm 16. This spring therefore urges the pawl 27 to rotate also in an anti-clockwise sense about the stud 28 tending to move the teeth of the pawl downwardly towards the square-sectioned bar 20. However, with the various components in the positions shown in Figure 1, the pawl 27 is prevented from such rotational movement by the abutment 26.

When the halyard stopper is moved into its locking state, the lever 18 is rotated in an anti-clockwise sense as viewed in Figure 1 about its arbor 12, to bring the lever down into the body of the halyard stopper. As the lever is moved in this way, a shoulder 48 on the lever 18 presses downwardly on the free end of the rocker arm 16 to rotate the latter in a clockwise sense against the action of the spring 42. As the stud 28 is thereby moved past the abutment 26, the spring pawl 27 is allowed to rotate in an anti-clockwise sense to bring its teeth downwardly upon the square-sectioned bar 20.Continued rotation of the lever 18 moves its shoulder 48 clear of the adjacent end of the rocker arm 16, but an arcuate portion 50 of the lever 18, having a centre of curvature on the axis of the arbor 12, prevents the rocker arm 16 from being rotated to its former relative position by the spring 42. This is shown clearly in Figure 2, in which the lever 18 rests snugly between the tops of the side plates to give a smart appearance and avoid risk of damage to the lever.

Figure 3 shows the relative positioning of the various components of the halyard stopper after the latter has been put into the locking state with a halyard or rope 52 passing through the stopper. The spring 46 shown in Figure 1 urges the pawl 27 downwardly so that its teeth bite into the halyard 52.

The direction of the force acting on the rope is shown by the arrow in Figure 3. This tries to pull the spring pawl 27 in an anti-clockwise sense, but because the arcuate portion 30 extends as a cam in relation to the stud 28, the force on the halyard 52 only increases the extent to which the teeth of the pawl 27 bite into the halyard. In this way, a wedging action is obtained in which the rope is squeezed more and more between the part 27 and the bar 20 the further the rope moves in the direction of the force acting on it.

To release the halyard, the lever 18 is lifted and rotated in a clockwise sense viewed in the direction of Figures 1 and 2. The components all move in the reverse manner two that involved in locking the halyard in the stopper. As the shoulder 48 of the lever 18 clears the free end of the rocker arm 16, the latter is free to rotate upwardly under the action of the spring 42. This rotates the pawl 27 in a clockwise sense against the action of its spring 46 as it engages the abutment 26. As a result the pawl 27 is lifted away from the halyard with little or no movement in the direction opposite to that of the force acting on the rope. This allows release of the halyard without the need for prior displacement thereof in the opposite direction of the force.

In the event that the rocker arm 16 jams because of dirt or for some other reason, and the force of the spring 42 is insufficient to lift the arm and the pawl 27 clear of the halyard, an arm 54 of the lever, adjacent to the arbor 12, engages the underside of the rocker arm 16 and lifts it upwardly as the lever continues to be rotated in a clockwise sense about the arbor 12. The lever 18 is thereby capable of acting positively on the rocker arm 16 to unlock the stopper. The shoulder 48 and the arm 54 of the lever thus constitute opposed abutment portions for rotating the rocker arm 16 in opposite senses respectively.

Figure 4 shows two holes 56 extending upwardly through the bar 30 to enable the stopper to be secured to a fixed portion, such as a portion of the deck of a boar (not shown).

Figure 5 shows how the side plates are provided with a recess 58 in their inside main surfaces. These accomodate the side portions of the rocker arm 16 enabling the width of the pawl 27 to be very nearly the interior width of the halyard stopper.

Claims (9)

1. A halyard stopper comprising a locking assembly which is moveable between a locking position in which it can hold a halyard against a force tending to pull the latter away from the halyard stopper, and a release position in which the halyard is free to be moved undertheaction of such a force, and a manually operable lever arranged so that it can act positively on the locking assembly to urge the locking assembly away from its locking position towards its release position.

2. A halyard stopper according to claim 1, in which locking assembly is so constructed that a part thereof which comes into contact with a halyard when the stopper is in use is lifted away from the halyard with little or no movement in the direction opposite to that of a force tending to pull the halyard away from the stopper, when the locking assembly is moved away from its locking position towards its release position, thereby allowing release of the halyard without the need for prior displacement thereof in the direction opposite to that of such a force.

3. A halyard stopper according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the manually operable lever has a first portion for engaging the locking assembly to move the latter to its locking position, and a second portion for positively engaging the locking assembly to move the latter to its release position.

4. A halyard stopper according to claim 3, in which the locking and releasing portions of the manually operable lever have a gap between them which extends a part of the locking assembly when the latter is moved between its locking position and its releasing positions.

5. A halyard stopper according to claim 3 or claim 4, in which the locking portion of the manually operable lever is arcuate, so that the manually operable lever can continue to rotate afterthe locking assembly has reached its locking position.

6. A halyard stopper according to any preceding claim, in which the locking assembly is spring loaded towards its release position.

7. A halyard stopper according to any preceding claim, in which the locking assembly comprises a moveable member, and a pawl which serves to grip the halyard when the halyard stopper is in use, pivotally attached to the moveable member and arranged to be rotated about its pivotal attachment, when the locking assembly is moved between its locking and release positions, by means of an abutment which is fixed in relation to the halyard stopper.

8. A halyard stopper according to claim 7, in which the abutment comprises two inwardly projecting parts respectively inmoulded with two synthetic plastics side plates of the halyard stopper.

9. A halyard stopper substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.