Collapsible kayak

This application is a national stage application of PCT/FR2005/003023, filed on Dec. 2, 2005, which claims the benefit of priority from French Patent Application No. 0412867 filed on Dec. 3, 2004, the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a collapsible kayak.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,827 relates to how to produce a folding kayak comprising a rigid base made in several parts and able to be concertina-folded, inflatable lateral parts secured to the rigid base, and a textile envelope secured to the top of the inflatable lateral parts and having a central opening for the user. The assembly in U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,827 is given its rigidity by, on the one hand, a longitudinal beam that holds the base in position, and on the other, interior frames that maintain the relative position of the base of the inflatable lateral parts and the textile envelope. A kayak such as this is designed to be watertight. To fold the kayak, the interior frames and the beam have to be removed, then it has to be deflated, and finally, it has to be concertina-folded, for example, in four parts hinged in pairs, before stowing it in a bag.

The disadvantages of this kayak are two-fold: first, the number of parts to be handled and to be assembled, which, in theory is 9, means that it takes ten minutes or so for a practiced user to assemble it; and second, it is difficult to maintain watertightness at the articulations in the base, for example, between the adjacent parts of the base and between the base and the inflatable lateral parts.

It is an object of embodiments of the present invention to address the problems of watertightness by providing a self-bailing kayak.

It is another object of embodiments of the present invention to reduce the number of parts used to construct the kayak so that it can be assembled in a very short period of time.

It is yet another object of embodiments of the present invention to provide a folding kayak in which the hull, after folding, constitutes a rigid outer envelope that protects the other parts of the kayak that are housed inside this envelope.

One embodiment of the present invention is directed to a folding kayak comprising a hull, an inflatable sponson and a textile envelope, wherein the hull is rigid and made of two parts that are adjacent in the transverse central region of the kayak; the textile envelope is fixed to the hull; and the inflatable sponson is held along the edge and along the top of the two parts of the hull by the textile envelope.

Advantages of this embodiment of the present invention are:

each part of the hull is a buoyancy tank of given volume, having an underwater hull shape on the outside;

each part of the hull has self-bailing holes;

each part of the hull has a rubbing strake or outwardly protruding edge along its outer upper edge;

the textile envelope has, on its outer edge, a line positioned under the rubbing strake when the kayak is unfolded or in the position of use, for securing the hull and the textile envelope together;

the outer edge of the textile envelope has looped straps inserted in slots in the rubbing strake and accept a position-locking tongue for securing the hull and the textile envelope together;

in order to maintain the relative position of the two parts of the hull when the kayak is unfolded or in the position of use, one of the parts has two fingers designed to enter two corresponding housings in the other part;

in order to keep the hull unfolded for use, a textile strap passes through a self-bailing hole of each of the two parts of the hull, wherein the strap is tensioned using a lever; and

the strap at one end has a stopper that jams in a self-bailing hole and at the other end has a spindle that catches on the hooks of the lever.

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