Ballasted, neutrally buoyant floating beverage-container holder which provides floatation, insulation and stability to a beverage container in water

Abstract

This is a floating beverage-container-holder which is ballasted and neutrally buoyant. It provides floatation, insulation and stability to a beverage-container in water. The holder includes a beverage-container receptacle, a floatation member to provide buoyancy and vertical stability, and a weighted ballast chamber containing sufficiently dense material to offset the buoyant force of the portion of beverage container and ballast chamber, which are submerged. The flange of the receptacle has holes to allow the entire holder to be tethered via clips and tether material to the user or any object.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of PPA Ser. Nr. 61 / 988,277, filed May 4, 2014 by the present inventors, which is incorporated by reference.FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH[0002]Not ApplicableSEQUENCE LISTING[0003]Not ApplicableBACKGROUND OF INVENTION[0004]1. Field of the Invention[0005]This invention relates to improvements in a floating beverage holder. More particularly, the improvements relate to a ballasted holder with a floatation member for a drink container, such as a cup or can, which allows the beverage to remain in an upright position, even in the midst of waves, wakes or other turbulent water where the beverage-container-holder is floating. Various types of container holders are proposed in prior art. The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:U.S. Patents[0006]Pat. No.Issue DatePatentee3,015,406Jan. 2, 1962Nolte4,571,194Feb. 18, 1986Kiss et al.4,887,716Dec. 19, 1989Abraham5,088,948Feb. 18, ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is a device that allows people to carry beverages in a safe and convenient way while engaging in activities in a body of water. It includes a tether that can be connected to different types of beverage containers and can be pulled behind or alongside while swimming, tubing, or small boating. The device also has a floatation member or ring to provide stability for the beverage container and to allow for branding or personalization. It can hold a variety of shapes and sizes of beverage containers, reducing manufacturing costs.

Problems solved by technology

Of note is that in many of the previous versions, the entire beverage holder must be picked up in order to take a drink, so the bulkiness or size of the holder makes it more cumbersome to consume the beverage.

Although the ballast weight helps to maintain the container in an upright position, when the container is empty, it has no floatation member to provide stability and to keep the container afloat in an upright position in the midst of turbulent water, nor does it include a tether.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,709 issued Mar. 17, 1998, to Nobile, for a “Thermally Insulated Floating Beverage Container Holding Device.” This reference has an elongated body for holding a drink container, and it has a weight secured to the bottom of the container in order to provide stability for holding the container upright during depletion of the beverage; however, this reference does not have a floatation ring or member to provide enough stability for withstanding turbulence produced by waves or swells like one would find in a lake with boating activity or an ocean.

This reference does not allow the upright stability that is maintained with a weight or ballast on the bottom so that an upright position is maintained during depletion of the beverage, thus it does not have the stability necessary to withstand turbulence produced by waves or swells like one would find in a lake with boating activity or in an ocean.

In addition, this reference is not designed with an included tether.

U.S. Patent Application 2010 / 0301053 published Dec. 2, 2010, to Willis et al. for a “Cooleebob Compliant Upright Drink Insulator Attachment.” Although this reference is weighted and is easily stored, it also works by attaching to a standard drink insulator, thereby limiting the usage.

Furthermore, it is not designed to be tethered to the user or another object.

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