Marine drive unit impact avoidance system
OwnerHoward E. Rennerinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A marine drive unit impact avoidance system for boats having both outboard type drives and inboard/outboard type stern drives provides a structure by which the lower, propeller-mounting drive unit on a boat is mounted for vertical movement relative to the supporting transom of a boat, and an impact/activating arm assembly is pivotally mounted at one of its ends to the lowermost forward portion of the lower unit for upwardly angled, forward extension therefrom to a pivotal mount at its other end to the boat, whereby any underwater obstruction encountered during forward movement of the boat will contact only the impact arm which operates under the impact to effect a cam action to lift the drive unit vertically to clear the obstruction without any contact of the drive unit and the underwater obstruction.
Claims16
A marine drive unit impact avoidance system for a marine drive having an upper unit arranged to be supported behind the transom of a boat and a propeller-bearing lower unit extending from the upper unit for operation of the propeller behind and beneath the plane of the bottom hull of the boat, the impact avoidance system comprising:
- a) drive unit mounting means on the transom configured to support the drive unit on the boat for vertical movement of the lower unit between a fully lowered, drive position and a raised position in which the lower unit is elevated on a substantially vertical line above its normal operating position, and
- b) longitudinally elongated impact arm means having a rear end configured for universal pivot attachment directly to the lower unit of a marine drive forward of its propeller, the impact arm means configured to extend forwardly and angularly upward therefrom for pivotal mount of its opposite, forward end to a boat below its water line forwardly of a marine drive unit supported behind the transom, whereby contact of the impact arm means with an underwater obstruction forces the arm to pivot on its forward mount on the boat and raise the lower unit vertically on the drive unit mounting means.
A marine drive unit impact avoidance system for a marine drive having an upper unit arranged to be supported behind the transom of a boat and a propeller-bearing lower unit extending from the upper unit for operation of the propeller behind and beneath the plane of the bottom hull of the boat, the impact avoidance system comprising:
- a) drive unit mounting means on the transom configured to support the drive unit on the boat for vertical movement of the lower unit between the fully lowered, drive position and a raised position in which the lower unit is elevated on a substantially vertical line above its normal operating position,
- b) powered drive unit lifting means engaging the drive unit on a boat to move the lower unit of the drive unit vertically between a fully lowered, drive position and a raised position in which the lower unit is elevated on a substantially vertical line above its normal operating position, and
- c) electronic sensing means on the boat configured to detect the presence of an underwater obstacle prior to its impact with the lower unit of the drive unit, the sensing means communicating with said powered drive unit lifting means to activate the latter to raise the lower unit vertically prior to its impact with a detected underwater obstacle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.