Nathan B Jones
General Contractor in Salt Lake City, UT

5738036, Apr 14, 1998

Apr 30, 1997

8/841350

Nathan Jones - Salt Lake City UT

B63B 3514

114255

A platform for mounting to extend outwardly from a boat side or end and positioned in a body of water that is for use in harvesting of material, particularly brine shrimp eggs, off from the water surface and includes an arrangement for maintaining positioning of the platform during use by a worker or workers standing on a platform deck. The platform includes at least one port formed through an upstanding wall that the workers direct a slurry of materials into, with the port connecting, through a harvesting manifold, to a harvest pipe wherethrough the slurry is pulled by a pump, and directs it into porous bags. The harvesting manifold is mounted to the platform by brackets that also provide connection points for journaling a vertical boom roller therebetween. The platform includes at least one guide means, and preferably a pair of guide means, that is preferably a section of channel, and is secured along one side to extend across and vertically from top to bottom of a platform rear wall that is to fit into and through a bracket mount that is secured to extend outwardly from the boat, and includes a pin arrangement for securing, at a selected platform depth in the water, the guide channel in the bracket mount. A winch that is operated to reel a winch cable in or out that can selectively be attached to the platform, for assisting in lowering it into and raise it out from the water surface, or can be strung to move the collection boom across each boom roller, and including pulleys mounted to the boat to direct the winch cable to perform these functions, and further including a horizontal roller journaled across an edge of the boat for support the platform as it is lowered into and raised out from the water.