Watercraft mooring apparatus
OwnerMartin VanAssche, William S. Jackinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for mooring watercraft to a dock makes use of a mooring clamp with at least one rearward-pointing teeth. The tooth and other inner surfaces of the clamp define a serpentine path for engaging a mooring arm from the watercraft to a docking member attached to the edge of the dock. The docking member is mounted substantially vertically and is sized to engage the serpentine path of the clamp lying substantially in the horizontal plane, the mooring apparatus permits the craft to rise and fall vertically without subjecting the mooring clamp to undue stress. At the same time, the features of the serpentine path inhibit accidental unmooring of the craft from natural forces until manually released.
Claims15
An apparatus for mooring a watercraft to a dock, comprising:
- at least one mooring assembly, the mooring assembly comprising:
- a base adapted to be secured to the dock;
- at least one arm having a proximal end detachably mountable to said watercraft, the arm capable of being oriented toward the dock and terminating in a distal end;
- a clamp secured at the distal end of the arm, the clamp having a pair of jaws with opposing inner surfaces, the jaws secured at an acute angle to each other to define an open mouth at one end of the clamp and a closed back at the other end of the clamp;
- at least one tooth extending from the inner surface of each of the jaws, the at least one tooth defining a serpentine path extending from the mouth of the jaw;
- and
- a docking member secured to and extending outward from the dock toward the watercraft, the docking member having a diameter sized to be guidable through the serpentine path for mooring and unmooring the watercraft, the serpentine path inhibiting unintended unmooring of the watercraft as a result of natural forces.
A method of mooring a watercraft to a dock, comprising the steps of defining a serpentine path in a clamp positioned at the end of a mooring arm releasably secured to the watercraft and orienting the serpentine path in a substantially horizontal plane, providing a substantially rigid docking member sized and adapted to be attached to said dock and oriented in a substantially vertical plane so as to be engageable by the clamp, and guiding the docking member through the serpentine path until it is fully engaged by the clamp.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.