UNIT FOR SUPPORTING HANDLE OF WATERCRAFT

Abstract: The present invention provides a tiltable steering handle unit which can manually be unlocked to adjust its angular position and then automatically locked at a selected angular position, whereby a operator can take an optimum attitude depending on his physical features or preferences.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a small-sized watercraft having a seat on the rearward position of the hull and a steering handle disposed on the hull forwardly of the seat and particularly to a unit for supporting the steering handle. In such a watercraft, an operator may take the seat and manipulate the steering handle to operate or drive the watercraft. One of such types of watercrafts is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Design Patent 449,793. However, the watercraft includes a steering handle which is not tiltable for an operator to take an attitude compatible with his physical features or preferences. US-A-3 487 712 discloses a steering wheel assembly for controlling a rudder or drive unit of a watercraft. The assembly includes a tubular member or steering column having the steering shaft rotatably disposed therein. The shaft is turned within the column by means of the steering wheel, the hub of which is secured on the end of the shaft. Actuating means for a flexible push-pull cable connected to the rudder or drive unit includes a pinion secured on the end of the shaft opposite from the steering wheel. The pinion is rotatable with the shaft to drive a rack carrying a movable member of the cable. A mounting bracket assembly supports the steering wheel assembly for pivotal tilt movement about a transverse axis through a given range in a generally vertical plane. The bracket assembly is secured to a supporting structure such as the transversely extending dashboard of the watercraft. Locking means, comprising a transversely extending lever engageable with any one of a plurality of notches on a quadrant projecting downwardly from the steering column, is provided for locking the steering wheel assembly in any one of a plurality of positions. US-A-2 829 090 discloses a boat steering control comprising a mounting bracket rigidly secured to the rearward face of the dashboard, a steering column extending between vertical ears of the bracket, and a steering shaft extending axially through the steering column. An intermediate tube portion of the steering column has a horizontal bore through which a pivot and clamping bolt extends. The steering column is swingable in a vertical plane about the pivot bolt and is held in angularly adjusted position by another bolt. The projecting lower end of the steering shaft carries thereon an actuator in the form of a double-sheave winding drum, tiller ropes being wound around the drum. DE-C-348 872 discloses a steering arrangement for motor boats in which the bearing for the steering column is carried on a quadrant-like member pivotable about a horizontal axis. The pivotable quadrant-like member carrying the steering column bearing includes an arcuate slot centred on the axis through which a clamping bolt passes to secure the member in a chosen position and the member is commonly journalled with an second pivotable quadrant-like member linking the end of the steering column to the remainder of the steering mechanism. The linkage to the remainder of the steering mechanism includes a clamping bolt passing through an arcuate slot, centred on the common axis, in the second quadrant-like member. It is an object of the present invention to provide a steering handle supporting unit suitable for use in a watercraft which can be angularly adjusted depending on the operator's position or preferences. The present invention provides a steering handle supporting unit suitable for use in a watercraft, said unit comprising a steering column mounted in a mounting wall; a steering shaft rotatably supported in said steering column, a tiltable member supported by said steering shaft and carrying a steering handle, said tiltable member being angularly adjustable about a pivot shaft in the fore-and-aft direction of the hull of the watercraft; and manually-operable unlocking means and positioning means (24) for locking said tiltable member at a selected angular position, characterized in that, for use in a watercraft comprising a hull, a seat on the rearward portion of said hull and a mounting wall disposed in said hull forwardly of said seat, the tiltable member is pivotally connected to the steering shaft by way of the pivot shaft, and in that the manually-operable unlocking means is disposed between said tiltable member and said steering shaft. Ways of carrying out the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings which show two specific embodiments and in which: Figure 1 is a left-hand side view of a small-sized watercraft incorporating a tiltable steering handle which is one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 is a back elevational view of the watercraft shown in Figure 1. Figure 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the primary parts of a unit for supporting the tiltable steering handle. Figure 4 is a back elevational view of the unit shown in Figure 3. Figure 5 is a front elevational view of a modification of the unit for supporting the tiltable steering handle. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to Figure 1, there is shown a watercraft having a hull 1 which comprises a lower hull portion 2 and an upper deck portion 3. The lower and upper portions 2 and 3 are made of a fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) and sealingly joined with each other at their peripheral flanges 4. The deck portion 3 extends from the bow of the hull to the stern of the same and an openable hood 5 provided on the forward portion of the deck to cover an engine (not shown) which is mounted within the hull 1. Behind the hood 5 is an upright wall, shown by broken line 5A in Figure 1, which has its lower end sealingly mounted on a mounting wall 3A formed integrally with a top wall facing the rearward portion of the hood 5. A steering unit S is mounted in the mounting wall 3A. The portion of the deck 3 extending rearwardly from the steering unit S is formed integrally with a seat mount 7 having a central raised part and foot rests 8 located on the opposite sides of the seat mount 7 at a lowered level, as best seen from Figure 2. As seen from Figure 1, a seat 9 is rigidly supported on the top of the seat mount 7. The rearward portion of the seat 9 extends rearwardly and downwardly to form a riding slope 10. Referring next to Figures 3 and 4, the steering unit S comprises a steering column 12 extending through an opening 11 in the mounting wall 3A. The steering column 12 is of a hollow cylinder configuration and includes an outwardly extending flange 13 formed integrally thereon about the outer periphery thereof. The steering column 12 is inserted upwardly into the opening 11 of the mounting wall 3A and then the flange 13 thereof is applied and attached to the bottom face of the mounting wall 3A by means of any suitable fastening means such as bolts 14. The flange 13 is positioned on the steering column 12 at a central position between the opposite ends thereof. Thus, the steering column 12 will have its upwardly and downwardly extending portions of substantially the same length about the mounting wall 3A. Prior to the mounting of the steering column 12 on the mounting wall 3A, a steering shaft 15 is passed through the hollow portion of the steering column 12. The steering shaft 15 is rotatably supported within flanged bearing bushings 16 which are disposed within the upper and lower ends of the hollow steering column 12, respectively. The steering shaft 15 has a support flange 17 formed thereon at a position adjacent to the upper bearing bushing 16 and a cylinder-shaped support boss 18 upwardly extending from the support flange 17. As seen from Figure 4, the support boss 18 includes a transverse bore 19 formed therein within which flanged pivot bushings 20 are rigidly supported at the opposite ends of the bore 19. Pivot shaft means (bolt-nut means) 21 extends through the transverse bore 19 of the support boss 18 and rotatably supported by the pivot bushings 20 therein. The pivot shaft means 21 supports a tiltable member 22 which is preferably of aluminium and which can angularly be positioned about the pivot shaft means 21 in the fore-and-aft direction of the hull. The top of the tiltable member 22 detachably supports a bar-like steering handle 6. The flange on each of the pivot bushings 20 is disposed outwardly of the bore 19 in the support boss 18 and engaged at its outer face by the inner face of each of bifurcated legs 23 on the tiltable member 22. The tiltable member 22 can be locked at an angular position by positioning means 24 which comprises a positioning stopper 25, a positioning pin 26 and a set spring 27. As seen from Figures 3 and 4, the positioning stopper 25 is a plate-shaped member which upwardly extends from and welded to the top face of the support boss 18 at one side. As best seen from Figure 3, the positioning stopper 25 includes a plurality of tapered positioning apertures 28 (three in the illustrated embodiment) which is arranged on a circle having a center on the pivot shaft 21. In the illustrated embodiment, the central one of the tapered positioning apertures 28 serves to position the tiltable member 22 at its neutral location and the remaining apertures 28 are used to position the tiltable member 22 at its forwardly and rearwardly tilted locations, respectively. As best seen from Figure 4, the positioning pin 26 includes an inner tapered end 29 adapted to penetrate into one of the tapared positioning apertures 28 in the positioning stopper 25 and an outer unlocking end 30 manually operated by an operator. The positioning pin 26 movably passes through a pin aperture 31 formed in the tiltable member 22. The set spring 27 is located within a spring receiver 32 which is mounted on the tiltable member 22 at one side and outwardly extends therefrom. The set spring 27 has one end engaged by the outer end of the spring receiver 32 which the other end thereof seated on an intermediate flange 33 on the positioning pin 26. Thus, the positioning pin 26 is resiliently biased against the stopper 25 under the action of the set spring 27 such that the inner end 29 of the positioning pin 26 can positively be held in one of the positioning apertures 28 in the positioning stopper 25. As best seen from Figure 3, the steering shaft 15 downwardly extends beyond the lower end of the steering column 12 which is located downwardly of the mounting wall 3A. The downwardly extending portion of the steering shaft 15 includes a square-shaped boss 34 which is fitted into the corresponding opening of a rotatable plate-shaped steering force transmitting member 35. A lock nut 36 is threadingly engaged onto the lowermost threaded end of the steering shaft 15 and then tightened against the rotatable member 35 such that the latter can be rotated with the steering shaft 15. The rotatable member 35 includes a rotary piece 37 extending downwardly from the bottom thereof, which piece 37 is connected with one end of a steering force transmitting relay member 38 in the form of a cable for converting a rotational movement into a linear movement. As best seen from Figure 4, the rotatable steering force transmitting member 35 includes two engagement lugs 39 spaced away from each other about the outer periphery of the member 35. Between these engagement lugs 39 is received a stopper 40 which extends downwardly from the mounting flange 13 of the steering column 12. Thus, the rotation of the rotatable member 34 and thus the steering handle 6 can be limited by engagement of the engagement lugs 39 with the stopper 40. The other end of the relay member 38 may be connected with steering nozzle means (not shown) on the stern of the hull and used to change the direction of the moving watercraft. In such an arrangement, when the position of the tiltable member 22 is to be angularly adjusted, the outer unlocking end 30 of the positioning pin 26 is manually pulled out against the action of the set spring 27 to disengage the inner end 29 of the positioning pin 26 from the positioning aperture 28. After the angular position of the tiltable member 22 has been adjusted, the positioning pin 26 is simply released to penetrate its inner end 29 into a selected one of the positioning apertures 28 under the action of the set spring 27, so that the tiltable member 22 and thus the steering handle 6 can automatically be locked at the desired angular position. In such a manner, the operator can take an optimum attitude for the steering handle 6, depending on his physical features or preferences. Referring next to Figure 5, there is shown a modification of the embodiment shown in Figures 1 to 4, in which the pivot shaft 21 is disposed above the positioning means 24. In such a modification, the steering handle 6 can less be moved to provide the same amount of tilt. This leads to a reduced size in the tiltable steering unit. Although the structure shown in Figure 4 includes the positioning pin 26 on the tiltable member 22 and the positioning apertures 28 in the steering shaft 15, the positioning pin 26 and positioning apertures 28 may be provided respectively on the steering shaft 15 and tiltable member 22, as shown in Figure 5. As will be apparent from the foregoing, the present invention provides a tiltable steering unit which can angularly be adjusted depending on the operator's physical features or preferences by manually unlocking the positioning means to adjust the steering handle into a desired angular position and thereafter automatically locking the steering handle at that desired angular position.

Claims: A steering handle supporting unit suitable for use in a watercraft, said unit comprising a steering column (12) mounted in a mounting wall (3A); a steering shaft (15) rotatably supported in said steering column (12), a tiltable member (22) supported by said steering shaft (15) and carrying a steering handle (6), said tiltable member (22) being angularly adjustable about a pivot shaft (21) in the fore-and-aft direction of the hull (1) of the watercraft; and manually-operable unlocking means (30) and positioning means (24) for locking said tiltable member (22) at a selected angular position, characterized in that, for use in a watercraft comprising a hull (1), a seat (9) on the rearward portion of said hull and a mounting wall (3A) disposed in said hull forwardly of said seat, the tiltable member (22) is pivotally connected to the steering shaft (15) by way of the pivot shaft (21), and in that the manually-operable unlocking means (30) is disposed between said tiltable member (22) and said steering shaft (15). A steering handle supporting unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the steering shaft (15) has a support flange (17) formed thereon, a cylinder-shaped support boss (18) extends upwardly from the support flange (17), the support boss (18) includes a transverse bore (19) formed therein, within which bore (19) flanged pivot bushings (20) are rigidly supported at opposite ends of the bore (19), and the flange on each of the pivot bushings (20) is disposed outwardly of the bore (19) in the support boss (18) and engaged at its outer face by the inner face of a respective one of each of two bifurcated legs (23) on the tiltable member (22). A steering handle supporting unit as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the positioning means (24) includes a positioning stopper (25) having a plurality of tapered positioning apertures (28), a positioning pin (26), and a set spring (27). A steering handle as claimed in claim 3, wherein the positioning pin (26) is located on the steering shaft (15). A steering handle supporting unit as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the positioning means (24) is disposed below the pivot shaft (21) and above the steering column (12). A steering handle as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the pivot shaft (21) is disposed below said positioning means (24). A steering handle as claimed in claim 6 when dependent on claim 3, wherein the positioning stopper (25) is provided on the steering shaft (15). A steering handle as claimed in claim 6 when dependent on claim 3, wherein the positioning pin (26) is located on the tiltable member (22).

Inventors: NIINA, JIRO
Applicants: KAWASAKI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1986
Main classification: B63H25
IPC codes: B63B35, B63H25