Folding hybrid vessel
OwnerJay Howard Smithinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A portable vessel includes a hard shell front hull section, a hard shell aft hull section, a flexible water tight material hull section affixed to the front hull section and the aft hull section in a water tight manner, the material section forming the middle portion of the hull of the vessel, and a tension-adjustable frame assembly. Tensioning of the frame assembly during assembly of the vessel causes tensioning of the material hull section from a less than taught state to a taught state about the frame assembly and wherein the disassembled components of the vessel may be configured into a backpack configuration for portage by a user.
Claims23
A portable vessel, comprising:
- a hard-shell front hull section;
- a hard-shell aft hull section:;
- a flexible water-tight material hull section affixed to the front hull section and the aft hull section in a water-tight manner, the material section forming the middle portion of the hull of the vessel;
- and
- a plurality of removable frame components comprising a frame assembly supporting the middle hull section in shape and structure;
- wherein completion of the frame assembly causes tensioning of the material hull section from a less than taught state to a taught state about the frame assembly, wherein upon disassembly of the frame assembly, the middle portion of the hull is sufficiently flexible to allow the hard-shell front and aft sections to nest one inside the other without detachment of the middle hull section from the front and aft hull sections, and wherein the disassembled components of the frame assembly may be stored within the nested hull sections during transport.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.