System and method for boat fender deployment

Abstract

An enhanced system and various methods for very accurately deploying boat fenders from a safe and convenient location. The boat fenders, which are placed along the periphery of the boat, may be very accurately deployed and retracted with lines attached to winches and motors. A smart phone app may be employed to remind users to deploy boat fenders upon entering known ports or based on boat's speed, and may also deploy the boat fenders automatically.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for deploying or retracting boat fenders based on geographical location, comprising:
 a motor;   a line fastened to the motor; and   a controller comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memory of, and operating on at least one processor of, a computing device, wherein the plurality of programming instructions, when operating on the processor, cause the computing device to:
 receive a geographical location; 
 determine a boat fender deployment height based on the geographical location; and 
 activate the motor to raise or lower the line such that a boat fender attached to the line is caused to be deployed at the boat fender deployment height. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the geographical location is a previous, current, or future location of a boat to which the system is attached. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the geographical location is a location of a dock. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the geographical location is a relative distance between a previous, current, or future location of a boat to which the system is attached and a location of a dock. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the boat fender deployment height is determined based on a height of a dock above the waterline for the dock. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the boat fender deployment height is determined by retrieving the boat fender deployment height from a database. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the boat fender deployment height is determined in part using information about whether the dock is fixed or floating. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein, if the dock is fixed, the boat fender deployment height is determined using tidal information for the geographical location of the dock. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a planning application that allows a plurality of docking sites or areas to be specified by a user, wherein the user sets a boat fender deployment height for each specified docking site. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the boat fender is raised or lowered to the boat fender deployment height only after a boat to which the system has been attached reaches a threshold cruising speed. 
     
     
         11 . A method for deploying or retracting boat fenders based on geographical location, comprising the steps of:
 receiving a geographical location;   determining a boat fender deployment height based on the geographical location; and   activating the motor to raise or lower the line such that a boat fender attached to the line is caused to be deployed at the boat fender deployment height.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the geographical location is a previous, current, or future location of a boat to which the system is attached. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the geographical location is a location of a dock. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the geographical location is a relative distance between a previous, current, or future location of a boat to which the system is attached and a location of a dock. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the boat fender deployment height is determined based on a height of a dock above the waterline for the dock. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the boat fender deployment height is determined by retrieving the boat fender deployment height from a database. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the boat fender deployment height is determined in part using information about whether the dock is fixed or floating. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein, if the dock is fixed, the boat fender deployment height is determined using tidal information for the geographical location of the dock. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising a planning application that allows a plurality of docking sites or areas to be specified by a user, wherein the user sets a boat fender deployment height for each specified docking site. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the boat fender is raised or lowered to the boat fender deployment height only after a boat to which the system has been attached reaches a threshold cruising speed.