Vessel with a semi automatic or automatic mooring system and method
AssigneeKongsberg Maritime AS
InventorsSauli Petteri Sipilä, Oskar Levander, Mark Callaway, Michal Romek
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Abstract
Disclosed is a vessel with a semi automatic or automatic vessel mooring system and a method of mooring with such a system. The vessel includes a hull, a mooring line winch unit, at least one mooring line extending from said winch unit, and a weight at an end of the at least one mooring line. A mooring line guide boom with at least one mooring line guide on a mooring line guide portion is movable between a retracted position aligned with the hull, and an extended position. In the extended position the mooring line guide boom allows the winch unit to lower the weight at the end of the mooring line extending through the mooring line guide and onto a quay.
Claims16
A vessel with a semi-automatic or automatic vessel mooring system, the vessel including a hull;
- a mooring line winch unit;
- at least one mooring line extending from said winch unit;
- a weight at an end of the at least one mooring line;
- a mooring line guide boom with at least one mooring line guide, and a mooring line guide portion connected to a side shell of the hull and pivotable about a vertically extending axis between a retracted position aligned with and positioned against the side shell of the hull, and an extended position extended from the side shell of the hull;
- wherein the hull includes at least one hull opening and wherein the at least one mooring line extends through the at least one hull opening;
- wherein the mooring line guide is provided by at least one mooring line guide boom opening in the mooring line guide portion aligned with the at least one hull opening when guide boom is in the retracted position aligned with the hull;
- wherein the mooring line guide boom is pivotally supported in the hull, and includes a mooring line guide boom actuator provided to swing the mooring line guide boom with the mooring line guide portion between the retracted position aligned with the hull and the extended position;
- whereby the mooring line guide portion in the extended position allows the winch unit to lower the weight at the end of the mooring line extending through the mooring line guide and onto a quay.
A method of semi-automatic or automatic mooring of a vessel with a semi-automatic or automatic vessel mooring system, the method comprising:
- navigating the vessel to come alongside a quay, the vessel comprising:
- a mooring line winch unit;
- at least one mooring line extending from said winch unit;
- a weight at an end of the at least one mooring line;
- and
- a mooring line guide boom with at least one mooring line guide on a mooring line guide portion connected to a side shell of a hull of the vessel;
- pivoting the mooring line guide portion about a vertically extending axis from a retracted position aligned with and positioned against the side shell of the hull to an extended position extended from the side shell of the hull and above the quay;
- actuating the winch unit to lower the weight onto the quay;
- moving the mooring line guide portion from the extended position above the quay to the retracted position alongside the hull;
- pulling the mooring line out to access a mooring line attachment portion of the mooring line;
- attaching the mooring line attachment portion to a mooring line attachment element on the quay;
- and
- operating the winch unit to adjust mooring line tightening.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.