GB2470627A

GB2470627A - Method of stowing a boat fender and apparatus therefor

Info

Publication number: GB2470627A
Application number: GB1003161A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Stephen Graham Parton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2009-05-26
Filing date: 2010-02-25
Publication date: 2010-12-01
Anticipated expiration: 2030-02-25
Also published as: GB2470627B8; GB201003161D0; GB2470627B; GB0908929D0

Abstract

A method of stowing a boat fender 200 comprises providing a retaining device 100 having a first portion 110 arranged to engage and support the fender and a second portion 105 for attaching to support means 205 on a boat. The second portion comprises a coiled elongate member 140. The method further comprises attaching the second portion 105 of the retaining device to the support means by a twisting motion of the retaining device; and attaching the fender to the first portion of the retaining device. A retaining device may be provided at each end of the boat fender.

Description

Method of Stowing a Boat Fender and Apparatus Therefor The present invention relates to boat fenders, and particularly to a method of stowing a boat fender on a boat as well as a device and assembly therefor.

Background

Boats are typically equipped with a set of fenders that are deployed before docking to prevent, or at least reduce the risk of, hull damage that can occur during a docking operation. When deployed, a fender hangs adjacent a boat and is secured, for example, to a point on the boat's deck by means of a rope tied to an eye in the fender.

When the boat is cast off the fenders are generally pulled up and stowed in order to eliminate the drag that would otherwise result from allowing the fenders to trail in the water. Stowing them on deck clutters the deck and causes obstructions, as well as slip hazards resulting from water and dirt draining from the fenders onto the deck. Stowing them below deck is inconvenient, because untying them is time consuming, and occupies valuable below-deck storage space.

Means for safely and conveniently stowing a boat's fenders when the boat is being sailed is clearly desirable.

Statements of invention

The invention provides a method of stowing a boat fender comprising: providing a retaining device having a first portion arranged to support the fender and a second portion for attaching to support means on a boat; attaching the second portion of the retaining device to the support means by a twisting motion of the retaining device; and attaching the fender to the first portion of the retaining device. The second portion of the retaining device may be a coiled elongate member, which may be part of one elongate member that forms substantially all of the retaining device.

The method therefore allows the fender to be stowed quickly and conveniently, and it obviates the need to untie the fender.

Optionally, the method further comprises: providing a further retaining device having a first portion arranged to engage and support the fender and a second portion for attaching to the support means; attaching the second portion of the further retaining device to the support means by a twisting motion of the further retaining device; and attaching the fender to the first portion of the further retaining device. The second portion of the further retaining device may be a coiled elongate member, which may be part of one elongate member that forms substantially all of the further retaining device.

Accordingly the method may permit the fender to be stowed even more securely, because when the fender is attached to the retaining devices it tends to prevent them from rotating thereby preventing them from detaching from the support means.

Optionally, the first portion of the or each retaining device comprises a hook, and attaching the fender to the or each first portion includes inserting the or each first portion through a respective eye in the fender.

The invention also provides a retaining device comprising: a first portion arranged to engage and support a boat fender; and a second portion for attaching to a support means on a boat, the second portion being a coiled elongate member. The coiled elongate member may be part of one elongate member that forms substantially all of the retaining device.

Such a device may be formed from a single member, e.g. a metal strip, and is therefore robust and simple to manufacture.

Optionally, the coiled elongate member extends through at least one turn.

Optionally, the coiled elongate member extends through one and a quarter turns.

Optionally, the coiled elongate member comprises a coating of a relatively soft material, such as an elastomer.

Optionally, the coiled elongate member has a pitch in the range 6mm to 15mm and an internal diameter in the range 6mm to 15mm.

Optionally, the first portion comprises a hook dimensioned to fit through an eye in the fender and thereby support the fender in use.

The invention further provides a boat fender assembly comprising a fender and a retaining device as described above.

The assembly may further comprise a second retaining device as described above.

Specific description

These and other aspects of the invention will be appreciated from the following description of exemplary embodiments, made with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figures la and lb are schematic front and side views, respectively, of a retaining device of an embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a schematic view of two of the retaining devices from Figure 1, fitted to a wire in a boat's pulpit rail and carrying a boat fender; and Figure 3 is a flow diagram depicting a method of stowing a boat fender using two of the retaining devices from Figure 1.

Referring to Figures la and ib, a retaining device in the form of a hook has a helical top end 105, a hooked bottom end 110 and an elongate shank 115 joining the two ends 105, 110. The hook 100 is formed from a single strip of marine grade steel of rectangular section. The strip of steel is approximately 3mm thick and 250mm long, with a width that tapers (not depicted in the Figures) from approximately 10mm at its wide end to approximately 5mm at its narrow end 125. The strip is bent forward to form the hooked bottom end 110 and backwards, downwards and to one side to form the helical top end 105.

The bottom end 110 of the hook 100 is made up of an approximately semi-circular bend 135 at the bottom of the shank 115 and an outwardly turned tip 130 at the end of the bend 135. The outwardly turned tip 130 is formed at the wide end 120 of the strip of steel, and is therefore approximately 10mm wide. The semi-circular bend 135 has a radius of around 25mm.

The shank 115 is approximately 75mm high, measured from its bottom where it joins the semi-circular bend 135 to its top where it joins the helical top end 105. Its width tapers in from bottom to top (not depicted in the Figures). The shank 115 has four surfaces. Beginning with the surface that is facing to the outwardly turned tip 130 and working clockwise when viewing the hook 100 from above, the shank 115 has front liSa, left-hand llSb, back uSc and right-hand llSd surfaces.

The helical top end 105 consists of a one and a quarter-turn helical coil that ends at the narrow end 125 of the strip. The coil 140 is formed from the metal strip by bending it backwards and to one side, such that it curves rearwards, downwards, forward and upwards again to complete S one turn, before bending backwards once more to form the final quarter turn.

The axis of the helical coil is transverse to the plane of the semi-circular bend 135 and is perpendicular to, and offset to the rear of, the shank 115; the shank 115 is tangential to the helical coil 140.

The distance from the middle of the strip at the beginning of one turn to the middle of the strip at the beginning of the next turn, i.e. the pitch of the coil, is more than twice the thickness of the strip. In this embodiment the pitch is approximately 15mm and the part of the strip from which the coil 140 is formed has a width of approximately 5mm. Therefore the pitch is approximately three times the strip's thickness and a space 145 approximately 10 mm wide (i.e. approximately twice the strip's thickness) is formed in the coil 140. The coil's 140 internal diameter is also approximately 15mm.

The whole of the coil 140 has a coating (not shown) of a relatively elastic material, for grip and to reduce wear caused by the marine grade steel.

Referring to Figure 2, in use a pair of hooks 100 connect a boat fender to a wire 205 in a boat's pulpit rail. A boat's pulpit rail is made up of an upper rail beneath which extends the pulpit-rail wire 205. The wire 205 has a diameter of approximately 5mm. The respective bottom ends of the hooks are each dimensioned to fit through an eye 210 in the fender 200, which eyes 210 have a diameter of approximately 20mm.

Once attached to the wire 20S the hooks 100 hang down from the wire 205 and support the fender 200 by its eyes 210, which rest at the bottoms of the semi-circular bends 135 of the respective hooks 100.

Referring to Figure 3, the hooks 100 can be easily attached to, and detached from, the wire 205 by hand and without any tools. The fender can then be stowed below the wire 205 by attaching it to the hooks 100.

To begin the method of stowing a boat fender 200, a first hook 100 is attached at step 300 to the wire 205 by a twisting motion. To do so, for example, a user holds the hook 100 by its bottom end 105 with the top end 105 extending away from him, and positions the hook 100 so that the coil's 140 axis points upwards and the right-hand surface 115d of the shank contacts the bottom of the wire 205. He then draws the hook 100 towards him, whilst rotating it anticlockwise about its long axis, until the radially-inner surface 140a of the top of the coil 140 rests against the wire 205. The user then tilts the hook to his right, about the point where it rests against the wire 205, and further rotates it anticlockwise until the wire 205 passes through the space 145 in the coil 14 and the narrow end 125 of the coil 140 passes under the wire 205. He then releases the hook which will be attached to the wire 205 with the wire 205 being positioned within the coil 140.

Next, at step 305 the user attaches a second hook 100 to the wire 205 using a twisting motion, in the same manner as was described above for attaching the first hook 100 in step 300.

With both hooks 100 attached to the wire 205, the user proceeds at step 315 to space the hooks 100 along the wire 205, moving them towards or away from each other as appropriate, until the distance between them is approximately equal to the distance between the centres of the eyes 210 in the fender 200.

Finally, the user attaches the fender 200 to the hooks 100 by placing it over their outwardly turned tips 130, which pass through the eyes 210.

He may do this one eye 210 at a time, or both eyes 210 at once. A radially-inner surface at the top of each eye 210 then rests on a respective radially-inner surface 135a of the semi-circular bends 135, and the fender is thereby supported beneath the wire 205 as shown in Figure 2.

It has been appreciated that the provision of a helical top end 105 with its helical coil 140 allows the hook 100 to be easily fitted and removed from a pulpit-rail wire 205, but keeps the hook secured to pulpit-rail wire 205 when it is one of a pair of hooks 100 that support a fender 200. This is because when two hooks 100 support the fender 200 by its ends, the fender 200 prevents or inhibits their rotation about the axis of the shank and thus from detaching from the wire 205.

Alternatives In the foregoing description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a twisting motion was described by which the hook 100 was attached to the wire 205. It will be readily appreciated that this twisting motion was one example of a twisting motion, and that any twisting motion permitted by the generally helical top end 105 that results in the wire 205 being positioned within the coil 140 could be used. Moreover it will be apparent that in the method of stowing a boat fender 200 described above the steps could be performed in other orders.

In the foregoing description reference has been made to attaching the hook 100 to a pulpit-rail wire 205 on a boat. It will be appreciated that an advantage of the invention is that it keeps the fenders 200 off the boat's deck, and therefore the hook 100 could instead be attached to any other suitable support means to suspend a fender from it. For example, the hook 100 could be attached to the pulpit rail itself (i.e. the upper rail) or any other, preferably horizontal, elongate member (e.g. wire, rail, bar etc.) that is suitably positioned and dimensioned to have a fender 200 suspended from it.

The semi-circular bend 135 could be any radius, or any other shape, suitable to carry one end of a fender 200, and the outwardly turned tip 130 could be replaced by an inwardly turned tip or a tip having the same radius as the semi-circular bend 135.

The elastic coating in the embodiment described above promotes traction between the hook 100 and the wire 205 and therefore tends to prevent the hook 100 slipping along the wire 205 of a relatively softer material. The coating could be any suitable material provided that it is softer than the material from which the hook 100 is formed e.g. it could be a plastics material or a textile fabric. In some cases it could also be applied to only one surface of the helical top end 105, or specific parts of the top end 105 that contact the wire 205.

The helical coil 140 in the helical top end 105 has been found to function most effectively when it extends through approximately one and a quarter turns, as in the foregoing description. However, it is expected that if a coil extends through at least one turn but no more than one and a half turns then it will function acceptably well and is therefore considered an alternative to the coil in the embodiment described above.

The internal radius of the helical coil 140 could be in the range 6mm to 15mm, and its pitch could be in the range 6mm to 15mm. This range is suitable for attaching the hook 100 to a pulpit-rail wire 205, but larger dimensions that fall outside of this range may be used e.g. for larger vessels such as commercial cruise liners or the like, or for attaching the hooks 100 to larger diameter rails. For example, a hook for a larger boat may be up to 350 mm long (measured from the top of the helical top end to the bottom of the hooked bottom end) and up to 150 mm wide (measured from the end of the outwardly turned tip to the back edge of the helical coil in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the shank), or even larger.

The regular helical coil 140 could be replaced by any other suitable coiled elongate member, such as a tapering or irregular coil or a coiled member formed from a series of straight sections such that it has a polygon-like cross section. The coil 140 could be formed by bending the strip forwards, i.e. in the same direction as for the bottom end 110, instead of backwards as described. The coil 140 could be formed by bending the strip to the left, instead of to the right as described. The coil 140 could be formed by bending the strip upwards, instead of downwards as described.

The hook 100 provides a low-cost solution for safely and conveniently stowing a fender 200 on a boat, but it is envisaged that the hook could be modified to stow other boat-related items in a similar manner. For example, the hook 100 could be dimensioned to suspend a rope from the pulpit-rail wire 205 or other suitable support means, directly or via connecting means such as a strap.

Claims

Claims 1. A method of stowing a boat fender comprising: providing a retaining device having a first portion arranged to support the fender and a second portion for attaching to support means on a boat, the second portion being a coiled elongate member; attaching the second portion of the retaining device to the support means by a twisting motion of the retaining device; and attaching the fender to the first portion of the retaining device.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: providing a further retaining device having a first portion arranged to support the fender and a second portion for attaching to the support means, the second portion of the further retaining device being a coiled elongate member; attaching the second portion of the further retaining device to the support means by a twisting motion of the further retaining device; and attaching the fender to the first portion of the further retaining device.
3. A method according to any foregoing claim, wherein the first portion of the or each retaining device comprises a hook, and wherein attaching the fender to the or each first portion includes inserting the or each first portion through a respective eye in the fender.
4. A retaining device comprising: a first portion arranged to engage and support a boat fender; and a second portion for attaching to a support means on a boat, the second portion being a coiled elongate member.
5. A retaining device according to claim 4, wherein the coiled elongate member extends through at least one turn.
6. A retaining device according to claim 5, wherein the coiled elongate member extends through one and a quarter turns.
7. A retaining device according to any of claims 4 to 6, wherein the coiled elongate member comprises a coating of a relatively softer material.
8. A retaining device according to any of claims 4 to 7, wherein the coiled elongate member has a pitch in the range 6mm to 15mm and an internal diameter in the range 6mm to 15mm.
9. A retaining device according to any of claims 4 to 8, wherein the first portion comprises a hook dimensioned to fit through an eye in the fender and thereby support the fender in use.
10. A boat fender assembly comprising a fender and a retaining device according to any of claims 4 to 9.
11. An assembly according to claim 10 further comprising a second retaining device according to any of claims 4 to 9.
12. A method of stowing a boat fender substantially as described herein with reference to any one or more of the accompanying drawings.
13. A retaining device for attaching a boat fender to a pulpit-rail wire on a boat, substantially as described herein with reference to any one or more of the accompanying drawings.