Sport fisherman's ice chest with integrated cutting board

Abstract

A cutting board that is integrated into the top lid of any size ice chest coolers manufactured by Igloo, Coleman, Rubbermaid and others. The cooler top lid must be a perfectly smooth and flat surface with no “markings”, imprints, or fish measuring scale. The perceived cutting board is not an “add-on” after market device, but an integral part of the cooler lid and integrated into the “top” during the manufacturing process—not added on by the “after market”.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to United States Provisional Application filed on Jul. 24, 2007 and assigned Ser. No. 60 / 935,048. In Barentine et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,726.050) (Apr. 27, 2004) the inventor suggested using “Velcro” to hold down an “add-on” cutting board to an Igloo cooler top. Velcro has been tried in the mid to late 1990s by this inventor (Azzara) to hold down cutting boards in various transom areas of a “fishing craft”, and has proved to be inadequate. The Velcro would sometimes breakaway and the cutting board would fly over board and be lost. The Velcro would also lose its ability to hold tight in prolonged saltwater applications. The use of Velcro also leads to sanitation and cleaning problems as fish blood and other particles stick to Velcro and dry in the sun attracting bugs, bacteria, etc. In the Barentine embodiment the Velcro would be an “add-on” expense in the manufacturing process. More significantly, a cutting ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]The invention and method described herein allows the consumer / fisherman to save valuable ice and space—effectively doubling or tripling the amount of cooler size he's carrying, and increasing the available “walking space” he'll have on-board the boat—all without adding additional cooler or coolers.

[0022]Cutting your fish on a cooler top with a flat and perfectly smooth surface made of “toughened” polyethylene thermoplastic (i.e., the same material as the entire top itself used by most manufacturers) will eliminate the above problems and associated expense.

[0023]Environmentally friendly: Cutting your catch at sea and throwing the skeleton overboard into the sea for other living marine life to feed upon is far superior and environmentally friendly way—as opposed to heaving the fish skeletons into garbage cans (as permitted at some / most Marinas) where the flys (and other critters”) get so thick the marina help often struggle to reach the “decaying mess” to cart them off for disposal.

Problems solved by technology

Manufacturers of ice chest coolers today do not have a top / cover lids that are flat and perfectly smooth enough for quartering / filleting / skinning fish.

It can actually be dangerous to use a cutting surface that is inadequate—often leading to cuts on fingers and hands.

It also is a “clean up” problem, as blood dries in crevices on the lid.

Lids on ice chest coolers are not designed to have fish filleted, quartered or skinned on them.

One ice chest cooler manufacturer (Igloo) offers a (small) cutting board inside the cooler itself—as a divider—but this embodiment does not go far enough, as the Igloo cutting board is not large enough to accommodate a big fish, and has to be removed from inside the cooler for use; is an unnecessary “add-on”, and cannot be fastened to anything once it is removed to make for an effective, non-slip, “cutting station / cutting board”.

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