GB2171289A - Waders - Google Patents

Abstract

Waders comprising boots and attachable wading trousers 1, the trousers being placed in tight-fit relationship over the boot legs. A mouldable sealing member 3 in the form of a string or tape impregnated with a mouldable plastics material having the characteristics of adhesivity is wound around the boot legs so that after insertion into the trouser legs it forms a seal therebetween. To complete the seal a spring steel strip 5 is inserted within each boot leg directly opposite the sealing member, having sufficient strength and size to cause the walls of the boot legs to flex outwardly so conforming the mouldable member with the profile of the surfaces of the trouser legs and boot legs between which it is located. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Waders The present invention relates to waders for use by fishermen and occasional use during emergencies such as flooding or where protection is needed around the legs against penetration by fluids.

Conventional body waders and thigh waders normally comprise a booted part integrally formed with a pair of upper watertight trousers welded or integrally fixed thereto.

Body waders of this type are generally expensive and have short life expectancy due to perishing of the rubber or plastics from which they are made.

Thus if the boots wear out, for example, the whole outfit has to be replaced whether or not the trousers are equally worn.

Moreover spending a hot day fishing in conventional heavy wading trousers can be quite exhausting, entailing perhaps the need to walk a long way from a car to the water. Thus it is fairly common for a fisherman to dispense with wearing waders and to fish only in short wellington boots. This places great limitations on the extent and depth where fishing can take place, in effect confining the fisherman to shallow water.

It is common practice of course for fishermen to carry general weather protecting clothing, and this usually includes light-weight waterproof trousers which can be pulled up and over wellington boots to protect additional body parts from rain. This arrangement however is useless for the purpose of wading in water because of the inadequate seal between the boots and trousers.

In view of the above it is an object of the invention to provide means whereby cheap light waterproof trousers of even heavy duty plastics material of a disposable nature may be releasably sealed to ordinary or conventional wellington boots to form water-tight waders as at the joint between the legs of the waders and the adjoining legs of the boots.

According to one aspect of the invention there is provided waders comprising boots and trousers attachable by engagement over the legs of the boots, a sealing member insertable between the legs of the trousers and the legs of the boots, and means for urging the sealing member into sealing engagement with the walls of that trouser leg and that boot leg between which it is locatable.

With this arrangement a watertight joint is achievable between an ordinary pair of wading trousers and wellington boots in an easy and uncomplicated manner, and which affords ease of release thereafter to permit the boots to be used separately for other purposes.

The sealing member may be in the form of a string or tape impregnated with a mouldable waterproof plastics material providing characteristics of adhesivity. This provides great advantages in forming the watertight joint since the impregnated string may be wound around each boot leg before insertion thereover of the wader legs and will retain its position, due to is adhesive characteristics, while this manoeuvre is being performed.

Thereafter the elastic, or other,pressure of the wader legs will act to conform the strip to the profile of the adjacent surfaces of the wader legs and boots to form the watertight joint irrespective of the existence of the normal longitudinal reinforcing rib found on the majority of conventional wellington boots.

To complete the seal, the means urging the sealing member into sealing engagement may in the form of a strip of spring steel designed initially to be conformable to the interior of a respective boot leg, after the trousers have been pulled thereover and then released when opposite the mouldable sealing member to flex the boot walls outwardly thereby squeezing the mouldable sealing member further into sealing engagement.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred way or ways of performing the invention made with reference to illustrative drawings.

Brief description of the drawings A particular embodiment of the invention will be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 is a sectional view illustrating means for forming a watertight seal between the leg of a pair of wading trousers and the leg of a conventional wellington boot.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a conventional boot provided with a flexible sealing member adhesively wrapped around the top of the leg of the boot as an intermediate step in assembling the combination waders according to the invention.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a spring steel stiffening element for the opening of the leg of the boot shown in Figure 2, and opposite the flexible sealing member as shown in Figure 1; Figure 4 shows the stiffening element of Figure 3 conformed to the opening of the leg of the boot of Figure 2; Figure 5 is an illustration of the manner in which the stiffening strip of Figure 3 is inserted in the opening of a pair of boots during assembly to form the combination waders according to the invention; Figure 6 is a view of a leg of a pair of wading trousers with a special tapered end portion; and Figure 7 is a perspective view illustrating a wader leg in sealed assembly with a boot leg according to the invention.

Best modes of carrying out the invention With reference to the drawings an arrangement for forming a watertight seal between the legs of a pair of wading trousers and a pair of ordinary wellington boots is shown more particularly in Figure 1, and wherein for illustrative purposes, one leg 1 of a pair of wading trousers is shown inserted over the top of the leg 2 of a representative wellington boot, in assembly. The wading trousers in the example shown may be made of a light waterproof flexible material or a heavy duty plastics, with the opening of the legs of the trousers chosen to be dimensionally less than that of the boot legs to which they are to be attached so ensuring a tight fit.

A flexible sealing member 3, also shown more particularly in Figure 2 in an intermediate assembly position, is disposed between the boot leg 2 and the wading trouser leg 1 inserted thereover, the flexible sealing member 3 being in the form of a length of string or tape impregnated with a mouldable waterproof plastics, for example a reusable adhesive marketed under the names BLUETACK and BUDDIES, so providing the string or tape with the characteristics of adhesivity. The flexible member 3 is preferably wound around the top of the boot leg approximately 4 cm from the top, or at such a position where the boot leg fits 2 tightly inside the trouser leg 1. In the embodiment in Figure 2, the ends of the sealing member 3 are overlapped around the raised reinforcement rib or seam 4 normally found on a standard wellington boot.

A stiffening strip 5 in the form of a length of spring-resilient material, for example plastics or metal is inserted within the boot leg. The strip is shown in more detail in Figure 3, and will be seen to be provided at one end with notches 6 and at the other end with a portion 7 tapering to a fine edge 7'.

The stiffening strip 5 is collapsed as at 5' in Figure 5 prior to insertion within the top of the boot leg 2, and then located therein opposite the flexible member 3, whereat, after release, it fiexes outwardly the sides of the boot leg 2 and is fixed in position, as in Figure 1, by means of the edge 7' of the end portion 7 engaging a suitable notch 6, as at 5" in Figure 5, at a required stiffening position.

The action of the strip 5 in pushing outwardly the walls of the boot leg 2 causes the mouldable water proof sealing member 3 to be further squeezed between the boot leg 2 and wading trouser leg 1 so improving the watertight seal.

As mentioned above, the bottom of each leg 1 of the wading trousers is fashioned such that it fits tightly over its respective boot leg 2, and specifically to cover a variety of different sizes of boot leg, the trouser legs are tapered in stages as at T in Figure 6, to enable them to be cut off along the dotted lines D shown, until the desired fit is achieved, depending upon requirements. In this way the trouser leg bags directly above the knee where most movement is required.

The flexible member 3 is of particular utility in the two part waders of the present invention both due to its sealing and positional retention capabilities. These advantages, and the general advantages of the invention, may be illustrated by considering one way of assembling the combination waders according to the invention.

Initially the sealing member 3 is wound around the outside of the upper part of the boot leg 2, as shown in Figure 2, to overlap the longitudinal reinforcing rib or seam 4, where existent Due to the composition of the sealing member 3 as discussed herein, it adhesively fixes itself in this position as the leg 2 is forcibly collapsed to allow insertion within the respective trouser leg 1 of a pair of suitable wading trousers. While in the collapsed position the boot itself is aligned with respect to the rest of the wading trousers and after release the flexible sealing element 3 is sandwiched in place.

Subsequent to this manoeuvre, the stiffening strip 5 is placed in position as above described, to complete the seal. The completed assembly, as viewed exteriorly, is shown in Figure 6, where the pronounced bulge 8 caused by the sealing strip 3 will be noted.

Once the seal is made and the waders placed in water, air becomes trapped between the outside of the boot leg and the inside of the trouser leg specifically at point 9 as shown in Figure 1. it has been shown that if the trouser leg is made from a transparent material, the trapped air is evidenced as a silver line completely encircling the boot at this position.

The embodiment as above described provides a quick and reliable means of effecting a watertight seal between a pair of wading trousers in common use and any type of standard boot be it of the fishing or gardening variety, and without resorting to complicated modification.

Although a reasonable seal could be effected between a wader leg having high elastic properties and the leg of a boot having a completely smooth circumferential exterior surface, the majority of conventional boots available today are provided with a longitudinal reinforcing rib or seam, such as shown at 4 in Figure 2, to prevent collapse under water pressure.

A complete seal by means of elastic pressure at the trouser leg above is therefore not possible in these circumstances because of the presence of passages through which water may travel which form to either side of the reinforcing rib and which are impossible to eradicate by this method of attachment; even a hairline indentation in the surface of the boot leg, for example that shown at 10 in Figure 2 could lead to leakage.

To account for this problem the mouldable plastics sealing member 3 of the present invention is squeezed into any cracks or indentations as made by the reinforcing rib on the boot surface, or indeed the adjacent interior surface of the wader leg, so effecting a complete sealing closure in all circumstances.

Finally with the invention, as will be clearly appreciated from the above, any type of conventional knee-high wellington boot may be employed to form the combination waders thus extending their versatility from ordinary gardening boots during the day, for example, to wading boots in the evenings.

To the best of the knowledge of the applicant no other wading trouser or thigh waders currently in use incorporate the advantages of the present invention as disclosed herein, or indeed is manufactured, which allows releasable sealing, using reusable impregnated string and spring steel stiffening strips, to standard wellington boots and the like so enabling the boots to be used for a dual purpose as expressed above.

Claims (10)

1. Waders comprising boots and trousers attachable by engagement over the legs of the boots, a sealing member insertable between the legs of the trousers and the legs of the boots, and means for urging the sealing member into sealing engagement with the walls of that trouser leg and that boot leg between which it is locatable.

2. Waders as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sealing member is in the form of string or tape impregnated with a mouldable waterproof plastics material.

3. Waders as claimed in claim 2 wherein said mouldable waterproof plastics has characteristics of adhesivity.

4. Waders as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said urging means is locatable within each of the boot legs.

5. Waders as claimed in claim 4 wherein said urging means is in the form of spring-resilient strip of metal or plastics conformable to the interior of said boot legs to permit insertion therein.

6. Waders as claimed in claim 5 wherein the opposing ends of said strip are provided with means inter-engageable to provide a predetermined amount of outward flexure of the boot walls subsequent to insertion with the boot legs.

7. Waders as claimed in claim 6 wherein said inter-engageable means comprises a series of teeth in one end surface of the strip each engageable by a complementary formed end portion at the other end of said strip.

8. Waders as claimed in claim 7 wherein the ends of the trouser legs are tapered over a predetermined length to enable the trouser legs to be adapted for tight-fit insertion over boot legs of varying sizes.

9. Waders comprising boots and trousers, the trouser legs being insertable in elastic tight-fit relationship over the boot legs in assembly, and a mouldable sealing member for mounting around the boot legs prior to insertion of the trouser legs thereover such that in said assembly it conforms to the profile of the surfaces of the trouser legs and boot legs between which it is located to effect a watertight seal.

10. Waders substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.