ARTICULATED MARINE STRUCTURE WITH PREPOSITIONED ANCHORING PILES

• US 3,751,930 A
• Filed: 12/27/1971
• Issued: 08/14/1973
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: George E. Mott, James P. Wilbourn
• Original Assignee: George E. Mott, James P. Wilbourn
• Inventors: Wilbourn, James P., Mott, George E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shapiro, Jacob
• Application Number:
  US05/212,074
• Time in Patent Office: 596 Days
• Field of Search: 61/46.5,46,53.5,63 173/43
• US Class Current: 405/196
• CPC Class Codes: B63B 35/4413 Floating drilling platforms, e.g. carrying water-oil separating devices
• CPC Class Codes: E02B 17/02 placed by lowering the supporting construction to the bottom, e.g. with subsequent fixing thereto

Abstract

The invention relates to a marine structure for use in an offshore body of water where piling is required to hold the structure in place. It relates in particular to a floatable marine structure which is sufficiently buoyant to be floated to an offshore working site carrying a plurality of positioning piles thereon. At the site at least a part of the structure is ballasted to sink to the ocean floor, the prepositioned piles are thereafter sequentially driven into the substratum.

Claims

1. A floatable marine structure adapted to be fixedly positioned to the floor of an offshore site which comprises;

a hull, including controllable buoyancy means, the latter being operable to regulate the disposition of said marine structure within a body of water, support means carried on said hull and extending upwardly therefrom, a working deck operably received on said support means and being longitudinally movable along the latter to regulate the disposition of said working deck with respect to said hull, and anchor piles removably carried on said marine structure, being aligned in position to be embedded into the substratum beneath said body of water when said hull is submerged to rest on the floor of the latter, pile guide means operably carried on said working deck and being adjustable to slidably support a pile as the latter is embedded into said substratum, and a track carried on said working deck adjacent to the peripheral edge thereof, said pile guide means being operably supported on said track.

2. In a marine structure as defined in claim 1, wherein said track includes;

a portion thereof being disposed outboard of said deck, and said pile guide means includes a carriage extending between the deck edge to be supported on said track.