Pedal powered watercraft and equipment
OwnerLarry Normaninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A water driven pedalcraft in which water propelling blades or paddles and a drive mechanism for driving the blades or paddles are associated with a framing system removably mounted atop a buoyant pontoon system. The drive mechanism preferably comprises conventional parts of a bicycle that are operably coupled to flexible and rigid drive shafts, or drive belts, which mechanism transmits torque to drive the water engaging paddle or propeller blades. The pontoon system includes a forward pontoon and a rearward pontoon, the pontoons being movable from a first position, wherein the pontoons are “in-line” with one another, and into a second position, wherein the pontoons are at an angle to one another, when the user desires to steer the watercraft into another direction.
Claims22
A watercraft, the watercraft including:
- a forward and a rearward pontoon, each pontoon being generally planar, longitudinally elongated, having upper and lower surfaces, and sufficiently buoyant to support the watercraft and rider on a body of water,
- means for mounting the pontoons together in axially spaced, in-line relation to one another and such that the pontoons define a generally horizontally disposed plane for engaging the water and are angularly positionable relative to one another, said means for mounting including
- a first frame removably connected to and projecting vertically upwardly from the forward pontoon,
- a second frame removably connected to and projecting vertically upwardly from the rearward pontoon, said second frame including a seat for positioning a user relative to the rearward pontoon, and
- means for connecting the first frame to the second frame such that the first frame may rotate relative to the second frame and from a first position, wherein the pontoons and their respective longitudinal axes are aligned along a primary axis, to a second position, wherein the pontoons are angularly oriented relative to one another and their respective longitudinal axes are not aligned whereby to change the angular orientation of the forward pontoon relative to the rearward pontoon and to steer the watercraft,
- a drive wheel rotatably connected to said rearward pontoon, said wheel including a plurality of radially extending water engaging blades, and
- means for rotatably driving the drive wheel, said means for rotatably driving being connected, in part, to said second frame and also to said drive wheel and rotatably driven by the rider.
A watercraft for use with a standard bicycle frame allowing a rider to have a self-propelled watercraft, said bicycle frame including a first frame including user operated handlebars, a second frame including a seat for supporting the rider, means for connecting the frames together and enabling the first frame to rotate relative to the second frame, and a pedal driven drive, the watercraft comprising:
- a forward and a rearward pontoon member, said pontoon members being of sufficient buoyancy to support the rider, and said first and second frames being mounted atop, respectively, the upper surfaces of said forward and rearward pontoon members, and movable by said first and second frames from a first position, wherein the pontoons are in an in-line relation with one another, and a second position, wherein the pontoons are moved into angled relation with one another,
- a water engaging paddle, said paddle being mounted for rotation to said rearward pontoon member,
- a paddle driver, said paddle driver connecting said pedal driven drive to said paddle, and
- a water engaging fin, said fin projecting from the bottom surface of said forward pontoon member and assisting the water engaging dynamics of the forward pontoon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.