Ballast system and related methods

摘要

A ballast system and method use a situational adaptive approach to measure, control and monitor the level of liquid in an onboard ballast tank. A baseline level of liquid in the tank, established while the watercraft is static, is stored in memory associated with a controller. While the watercraft is moving, the controller monitors pump conditions, e.g., run time, flow, vacuum, etc., and extrapolates the amount of water added to or drained from the tank. The baseline level and extrapolated added/drained amount are added to accurately determine the true liquid level in the tank. That information is displayed to the watercraft operator. The system can automatically adjust watercraft attitude by adding/draining water from the ballast tank based on preset values to provide a desired wake. The system can display ballast levels in volume, percentage of full, and weight; and can provide estimated times to achieve preset levels, empty or full.

主权项

1. A method of operating a ballast system of a watercraft, the method comprising:
determining a static baseline water value representative of a first amount water in a ballast tank on a watercraft with a sensor while the watercraft is in a static state; storing the static baseline water value in a memory; determining a transferred water value representative of a second amount of water that is at least one of added to and drained from the ballast tank while the watercraft is in a dynamic state by monitoring a pump condition with a controller; determining an output value representative of a total amount of water in the ballast tank while the watercraft is in a dynamic state with the controller, the total amount of water including the first amount of water associated with the static water value and the second amount of water that is at least one of added to and drained from the ballast tank represented by the transferred water value; and activating at least one pump to at least one of add water to and to drain water from the ballast tank to alter the attitude of the watercraft relative to the surrounding water within which the watercraft is located while the watercraft is moving, thereby altering at least one of the shape and size of wake behind the watercraft, whereby a watersport user towed behind the watercraft can engage the altered wake.