MARINE LIFTING VESSEL

摘要

For a self-powered marine lifting vessel or catamaran having static buoyancy, a working deck is forcibly raised or lowered by flexing or extending each of a plurality of articulated pairs of fixedly mounted support beams connecting each hull and the deck. One version uses locally applied forces at the joints from adjacent hydraulic cylinders, incidentally causing the hulls to rotate about their axes. Another version forces the hulls to rotate axially from a non-rotating aft inter-hull linkage. Applications include routine harbour maintenance and hull cleaning, then emergency marine pollution including oil cleanup at a polluted site.

主权项

1. A marine lifting vessel or catamaran having two buoyant hulls each provided with static buoyancy; characterised in that the catamaran has a rigid working deck having a top, an underneath, two sides, a bow aspect and a stern aspect and the deck is movably and symmetrically supported along each side from the adjacent hull by a plurality of intermediate jointed beams arranged in a parallel array thereby securing one hull to the other through the deck; each intermediate jointed beam being comprised of two beams (herein identified as a “hull beam” and a “deck beam”), pivotally joined together at their adjacent ends and having a substantially horizontal axis of rotation, thereby forming a lifting joint; the non-adjacent end of each beam being fixedly attached to the hull and to the deck respectively; and wherein each joint shares a common axis of rotation with the joints of the other intermediate jointed beams; each lifting joint being provided with joint angle control means to forcibly change the angle between the hull beam and the deck beam at the lifting joint; all joint control means being controlled so that, when in use, a height of the rigid deck in relation to a water line can be altered by forcibly causing the angles of a plurality of the joints to change; thereby either lifting the deck higher above the water line, or lowering the deck to or below the water line.