Abstract: A lifejacket has an inflatable body defining a head receiving opening having a closed periphery. The opening is elongated to reduce the stress tending to open the seam at the periphery of the body when inflated. Restraints join the periphery of the opening on the side remote from the head end of the body to the head end of the body on opposite faces respectively of the body. These restraints are so dimensioned that, when the body is deflated, they lie loosely across the opening and do not impede insertion of the wearer's head therethrough and when the body is inflated, they are stretched taut across the opening and inhibit the wearer's head slipping back through the opening.

Abstract: A torpedo recovery system including an expandable sleeve surrounding a portion of the torpedo. Upon activation of the recovery system gas is introduced into the sleeve, causing it to expand. The sleeve is clamped firmly at two distinct longitudinal positions along the torpedo and is releasably clamped at a third longitudinal position. When the differential pressure between gas inside of the sleeve and water outside the sleeve reaches a predetermined threshold level, the releasable clamp releases the sleeve allowing it to gradually expand to form a doughnut-shaped floatation collar. The expanding sleeve provides gradually increasing drag to slow the torpedo and then positive buoyancy for lifting it to the water's surface.

Abstract: A self stabilizing elevator float having a float body divided into a series of ballast tanks which are bailed or flooded to raise or lower the float body. A first pair of vertically displaceable towers are arranged at one end of the float. A second pair of towers at the opposite end of the float are displaced sufficiently transverse from the float so that the first and second pair of towers imparts longitudinal and transverse stability to the float.

Abstract: In an apparatus for mooring a vessel offshore comprising an elongated buoyant column pivotally connected at the lower end to a base anchored to a sea floor, the improvement comprising a hawser-receiving tube in the column; a hawser guide located in the column top portion; a hawser having a first end located down in the tube and extending upwardly in the tube through the hawser guide and terminating outwardly from the column in a second end to be connected to a vessel; and a remotely operable connector at the first end of the hawser for releasably but stationarily securing the hawser end to the tube so that traction applied by a vessel moored on the hawser second end is fully resisted.

Abstract: In a sailing craft, in which the foot of a sail is attached to a yard pivoted on a boom, itself pivoted on the mast, this sail, provided to be of single or double-thickness, preferably comprising a sectioned front edge, restraints are provided for selectively blocking either the yard with respect to the boom, or the boom with respect to the hull of the craft, so that the sail may pivot either on itself or about the mast, as desired.

Abstract: A handle assembly for a water ski towline having a handle and mechanism for engagement and disengagement of a safety belt for water skiers. The handle is joined with the engagement and disengagement mechanism and has a device for retaining a pull strap of a safety belt connecting strap by engagement with one hand of the user during the starting process and during skiing, whereby the entire tensile forces exerted by the towline are transmitted to the safety belt and thus to the body of the water skier.

Abstract: A buoyant capsule depth controller is presented for positioning and maintaining a capsule within the ocean waters for establishing an observation or defense station. A bouyant capsule is connected to a weight assembly by means of explosive fittings which detonate at a predetermined depth to separate the two. The buoyant capsule and weight assembly are then held together by means of a short line of fixed length until a second predetermined depth is reached, at which time a pressure-actuated release mechanism releases the short line and a cable wound within the weight assembly is payed out to the buoyant capsule below a preset depth as the weight assembly sinks to the ocean floor. The paying out of the cable rotates a shaft within the weight assembly which in turn drives an hydraulic pump, the output of the pump being controlled by a valve to regulate the amount of drag which the pump exerts upon the shaft thus controlling the rate of cable pay out.

Abstract: A marker buoy attached to an object such as a lobster or crab trap by a latch and released by a trigger struck by a falling weight. A sealed buoy compartment contains a first permanent magnet holding the weight in upper position by a supportive pole relationship to the poles of a second permanent magnet on the weight and releasing the weight when the first magnet is pivoted to a relative position of poles not sufficiently supportive of the weight. The first magnet is pivoted by an electric motor controlled by an electric clock. Setting of the clock and other operations are accomplished without disturbing compartment seals by an external hand-held magnet operating on internal magnetic reed switches. A line tethers the buoy to the object when the latch is released.

Abstract: The invention concerns a remote-controlled submersible drogue of the type used for carrying probes for marine research. The drogue is connected by a towrope or cable to a towing craft and comprises a lifting body which has a cross sectional shape which is dynamically stabilizing. In addition, the drogue includes a static stabilizer comprising a flat plate extending downwardly and rearwardly from the lifting body and the towrope is arranged to be attached at the tip of the front end of the drogue.

Abstract: A large-scale protective device in accordance with the invention comprises an assembly of two types of unit, rigid cylindrical floating towers (3 to 6) and elastic connecting units (7, 8, 9) consisting of elastomer tubes. The generatrices of these elastic connecting units are in contact with vertical stiffeners (10) of the floating towers. These vertical stiffeners also serve to maintain cylindrical deflector rings (11) of the floating towers one above another in a stacked configuration.

Abstract: A marine propulsion device which includes a drive shaft housing having a fluid passage therein and an opening communicating with the fluid passage, and a shift control rod housed in said drive shaft housing, the shift control rod including a first portion, a second portion, and a shift rod connector for fixedly joining the first and second portions together in coaxial relation, the shift rod connector being housed in the fluid passage and being accessible through the opening.

Abstract: A marine fluid transfer buoy is anchored to the sea bed employing two vertically displaced cardan joints. Connection between an undersea pipe and the fluid transfer buoy is made coaxial with the lower cardan joint and connection to a riser pipe to the surface is made coaxial to the upper cardan joint. All twist in the conduit at the connections is accommodated within a pressure container intersected by the two cardan axes which provides a protected dry environment for the conduit within.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and apparatus for the operation of a ship's propulsion installation with a Diesel motor, whereby a pressure-medium-activated friction clutch with adjustable pressure-medium feed is provided between the Diesel engine and the ship's drive.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for agitating liquids, maintaining solids in suspension and breaking up surface ice on waterways is provided in which a base plate having a plurality of dependent probes adapted to be immersed in a liquid to be agitated in subject to vibratory energy produced by selectively rotating eccentric weights in a vibratory case fixed on top of said base plate.

Abstract: A bottle and boat fender comprising a hollow body for holding a flowable material therein. The body includes a top wall portion having an opening communicating with the interior of the body, a threaded cap covering the opening, a bottom wall portion and a side wall portion disposed between the top wall portion and the bottom wall portion. The side wall forms the periphery of the body and includes two pairs of planar opposed wall portions. Each of the wall portions of one pair include a pair of conical depressions therein which are aligned with a pair of conical depressions in the the opposed wall portion. The bottom of the aligned opposed depressions forms a common wall therebetween which includes an aperture of sufficient size to accomodate nautical rope therethrough. One aperture is located below the top wall and the other aperture is located above the bottom wall.

Abstract: A collapsable swim fin includes a frame, a nonrigid blade or propulsion web, and tension members pivotally connected to the frame. The frame includes two slender, semirigid members extending forwardly from a swimmer's foot. The tensioning members include a pair of tension bars, each of which connect at one end to an opposite side of the frame members. The bars are pivotally interconnected at their other end, allowing movement of the bar members in a plane parallel with the blade. The blade or propulsion web is made of a collapsable material. Rotating the bars toward each other moves the frame members together and collapses the blade. Positioning the bars slightly past a colinear disposition to an overcenter orientation pushes the frame members apart, which tensions the blade material. The overcenter orientation causes the resilience of the propulsion webbing, in conjunction with a locking pin arrangement on the bars, to maintain the bars in a position to tension the propulsion webbing.

Abstract: An anchor in which the flukes pivot on the shank about independent axes wh converge toward the anchor chain end of the shank. Lugs at the base of shank provide for mounting the pivots. The anchor is reversible and has support plates on either side of its base which act as stops to limit the extent that the plate-like flukes can close toward each other as the anchor is set.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an oil spill containment device for aquatic vessels including a flotation collar structure surrounding the periphery of the vessel to be contained, apparatus for deploying this collar including in one embodiment compressed air dispensing equipment and a cable deploying device which pays out and retracts cable as a function of tidal currents, and a sheet structure depending from and extending upwardly above the collar to constrain any oil slick or any potential thereof. Also contemplated herein is a compartmentized and containerized storage system for fuel within a cargo ship so as to minimize the likelihood of a catastrophic spill.

Abstract: An improved lobster buoy spindle member comprising a buoy spindle having apparatus for the retention of a float member thereon and having at the base thereof a pivot member to allow the rotation of a rope line extending from a trap when affixed thereto.

Abstract: An assembly is provided for raising and lowering, and for firmly securing, a type of anchor known as a "Bruce" anchor. The assembly includes the rear channel shaped section for receiving the shank of the anchor when it is stowed, and for mounting the assembly on the front deck of the boat. The assembly also includes a forwardly extending section having two side plates which have a roller mounted between them for raising and lowering the anchor over the front portion of the deck of the boat. The roller may be of high strength plastic such as Delrin, and is fairly large, being in the order of 5 inches in diameter and about 3 or 4 inches in width and deeply grooved to receive and center the chain or rope by which the anchor is raised and lowered, and also for engaging the L-shaped shank of the anchor when it is stowed. The front portion of the assembly also includes two protrusions for engaging the fluke area of the Bruce anchor.