Multi cradle apparatus

Abstract

An apparatus (1) for handling daughter boats (2) on a mother vessel comprising one davit assembly positioned atop a stationary cradle (5), each of which is located near a side edge (11a, 11b) of a deck (11) of the vessel for launching and retrieving the boats (2) from and onto the stationary cradle (5) characterised in that the apparatus has a plurality of longitudinally movable cradles (7) on the deck (11) of the vessel for securedly holding plurality of boats thereon and in that the longitudinally movable cradles can move back and forth longitudinally and lift up vertically to transfer a boat (2) onto or to receive a boat (2) from, one transversely movable cradle (4) which can transversely move back and forth for placing a boat (2) onto or for receiving a boat (2) from, the longitudinal cradles (7) and any one stationary cradle (5). The invention also relates to a method for launching and retrieving boats from a mother vessel.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.