Abstract:
A bridal plate is shown and disclosed where the bridal plate is secured to a mooring ball or other static object with a jaw. The bridal plate has a plurality of shackles attached to the plate and lines are attached to the shackles. The lines are then secured to the boat or floating object. This allows multiple lines between the floating object and static object and reduces the possibility of the lines crossing and chafing of lines against one another helping to prevent premature failure of the lines or connectors.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application claims the benefit of Provisional application for Patent Ser. No. 60/852,104 filed on Oct. 17, 2006 and Provisional application for Patent Ser. No. 60/835,188 filed on Aug. 3, 2006. 

   FIELD 
   The present version of this invention relates generally to the field of devices used to moor ships or boats to moorings. 
   BACKGROUND 
   This invention relates to devices for securing boats and ships to moorings, and more particularly to a device which allows the user to secure multiple lines from the mooring to the boat or ship. 
   Many persons who have boats or ships tie them up to a mooring near shore or in a harbor. A mooring is a floating device anchored to the shore or bottom of the harbor. A mooring is intended to secure the boat or ship so that the boater is not required to launch and remove a boat or ship from land and water each time it is used. 
   In areas where there can be storms or rough seas, boaters many times use more than one line to secure the boat or ship to the mooring. The use of multiple lines can help secure the boat to the mooring so that strong winds and waves do not tear the boat from the mooring often having catastrophic effects and many times resulting in the entire loss of the boat or ship. Multiple line attachment methods suffer from some significant disadvantages. 
   The background art shows that attaching a boat, ship or vehicle to a mooring was either done with a single line or with redundant lines. A common method for redundant lines was accomplished by placing the multiple lines on a common ring of the mooring. The lines are attached to a thimble and this thimble is then attached to the ring or chain of the mooring. There are significant disadvantages to the method shown in the background art. 
   This background art method causes interference or cross over of the thimbles and can cause excess abrasion of the lines often leading to premature failure from abrasion of the thimbles, lines or both. 
   The method shown in the background art does not allow for the even distribution of load between the lines. In order to get even loading of the lines they would need to have the same distance between the ring on the mooring and where they are tied off on the boat, or ship. This is extremely difficult to do, to get a common line distance. This is due to the rolling of the boat or ship relative to the mooring. Because the ship or boat is rolling in the water, the line distances are rarely the same resulting in uneven loading of the lines between the mooring and the boat or ship. 
   When the thimbles from, for example three lines, are attached to the ring on the mooring, they rest next to each other. Because the ring on the mooring is generally on the top of the mooring, the thimbles are not the same distance from the boat or ship. This also contributes to the unequal length of the mooring ropes shown in the background art. 
   For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a bridal plate that can hold redundant mooring lines from a mooring. 
   SUMMARY 
   In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the background art for mooring or attaching boats or ships to a mooring there is a need for a bridal plate that can accommodate redundant lines and that minimizes many of the shortcomings of the methods or products used in the background art. 
   A first objective is to provide a device that can help secure boats or ships to a mooring. 
   Another objective is to provide a device that can help eliminate premature failure of mooring lines and attachments. 
   It is yet another objective to provide a device that can help even out the tension on each of the mooring lines. 
   It is a still further objective to allow the use of redundant mooring lines from the mooring to the ship or boat. 
   These together with other objectives, along with various features of novelty which characterize these embodiments, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of these embodiments, the operating advantages and the specific goals attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated several embodiments. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  shows a top view of one embodiment of the device attached to a mooring ball. 
       FIG. 2  shows a side view of one embodiment of the device. 
       FIG. 3  shows an exploded view of some of the elements of one embodiment of the device. 
       FIG. 4  shows an alternative embodiment of the plate with two line holes. 
       FIG. 5  shows an alternative embodiment of the pin or swivel pin. 
       FIG. 6  shows an alternative embodiment of the plate. 
       FIG. 7  shows a schematic of relative distances of the line holes from the load line. 
       FIG. 8  shows that the line holes are parallel to one another. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   Referring to the drawings in detail wherein like elements are indicated by like numerals, there is shown in  FIG. 1  a bridal plate  18 . The bridal plate  18  is assembled from a plate  20  and a jaw  30 . The jaw  30  has a stem hole  21  through which is inserted the stem  22  of the plate  20 . The stem  22  is threaded to accommodate a nut  24 . The plate  20  and jaw  30  are retained together with nut  24 . The plate  20  can be made from a plate steel either a stainless steel or a carbon steel which is then treated to prevent rust and corrosion. It should be understood that various shapes to the plate  20  could be manufactured. 
   The stem  22  allows the plate  20  to rotate relative to the jaw  30  thus the jaw  30  acts as a swivel. This swivel action of the plate  20  allows the lines  27  to rotate relative to the mooring ball MB and lessens the likelihood of line on line contact which cause accelerated wear and eventual failure of the lines  27 . 
   It should also be recognized that the shackles  26  affixed to the plate  20  also allow movement of the lines  27  relative to the plate  20  both horizontally and vertically. This relative movement of the lines  27  helps prevent crossover of the lines and can result in less friction and wear. The arrangement of the lines  27  also allows for more even loading of the lines  27  and hence the lines should last longer due to the lessened focused single line loading that can occur on much of the background art. This more even loading also benefits the attachment of the lines at the other end also. Obviously less focused loading on a single line lessens the chances for failure at the object being tied. 
   On the plate  20  are a plurality of line holes  23 , this embodiment shows three line holes  23 . The line holes  23  are all parallel to one another and perpendicular to the plate  20 . Shackles  26  are attached to the plate  20  through the line holes  23  with swivel pins  28  and nuts  24  (See  FIG. 2 ). The shackles  26  are then attached to lines  27 . The lines  27  are affixed to the boat or floating item. It should be understood that fewer line holes  23  could be arranged such that there are only two lines  27  extending and tied off at the vessel. Even the two line embodiment of plate  20  allows an extra line to the vessel or device being secured as compared to much of the background art which only has one line 
   A pin  32  is used to attach the jaw  30  to a link of chain L which in turn is secured to a mooring ball MB,  FIG. 1 . While this embodiment shows the jaw  30  attached to the link L which is positioned above the mooring ball MB, it should be understood that the jaw  30  could also be attached to the link L below the mooring ball MB, not shown. The pin  32  may be attached below the mooring ball MB to link L if the mooring ball MV is small in size or if there are no links L on top of the mooring ball MB. 
     FIG. 4  shows an alternative embodiment of the plate  20 . In this embodiment, the plate  20  has two line holes  23 . The line holes  23  are also separated which helps prevent line  27  crossover, friction and premature wear. This plate  20  can be used on a mono-hull vessel with one line  27  affixed to each side of the hull. The embodiment of the plate  20  shown in  FIG. 1 , where there are three lines  27  can be used on multi hull vessels such as catamarans and tri-marans or it could also be used on a mono hull vessels with the third line used as added protection. 
     FIG. 5  shows an alternative embodiment of the pin  32  or swivel pin  28 . In this embodiment, pin  32  has a head  36  and a toe  37 . Near the head  36  is located a head hole  38  and near the toe  37  is located a toe hole  39 . The head hole  38  and toe hole  39  can be used to wire these elements to surrounding elements to help prevent their loss as is known in the art. Toe hole  39  can also be used for a cotter pin, not shown. These head holes  38  and toe holes  39  in this embodiment of the pin  32  provides an additional measure of safety in that cotter pins or wiring can help prevent the nuts  24  and pins  28 ,  32  form loosening or falling out. 
     FIG. 6  shows an alternative embodiment of the plate  45 . In this embodiment the plate  45  is manufactured from a metal rod and bent and welded to form the formed plate  45 . Circular shaped shackle disks  47  are welded to the inside of plate  45  and a circular stem disk  51  for housing pin  32 . Pin  32  is then affixed to the jaw  30  (not shown). Shackles are then retained by the shackle disks  47 . It should be understood that while this embodiment of the plate  45  shows three shackle disks  47 , there could be only two shackle disks  47 . 
   This embodiment of the plate  45  could also have one or more cross members  49  to help strengthen the plate  45 . This embodiment of the plate  45  would be lighter than the previous embodiment and may be useful for those applications that are used on smaller boats or ships. It may also be more useful on smaller mooring balls MB that are less able to retain buoyancy for the other disclosed embodiments. 
     FIG. 7  illustrates that the line holes  23  are equidistance D 1  and D 2  from the load line LDL which runs to the mooring ball MB. D 3  is a predefined distance such that the shackles  26  will not interfere with one another causing wear and premature failure. 
     FIG. 8  shows that the line holes  23  are all parallel to one another. 
   It will now be apparent to those skilled in the art that other embodiments, improvements, details and uses can be made consistent with the letter and spirit of the foregoing disclosure and within the scope of this patent, which is limited only by the following claims, construed in accordance with the patent law, including the doctrine of equivalents.