experimenting with pole-cam

[waynemunro]

Hi Guys,

took the day off work yesterday, as had a friend visiting from Colorado and took him out for a sail, had a great day, wasn't too sunny, but the wind was good and there were some cool waves.

However I have been experimenting with pole-cam, basically putting the digital camera on the end of a pole and holding it out so I can get some video of the weekender as it was going along. there should be a link below to a couple of versions of the video for anyone interested (the first is just a much lower quality version). I experimented with shoving the camera under the water to try and get a video of the underside of the weekender while under way, as you will see it was a dismal failure.

320x240, 2.5MB

www.waynemunro.com/misc/sailing_20050317sm.avi

640x480, 13MB

www.waynemunro.com/misc/sailing_20050317.avi

hope you are all looking forward to your summer over there, winter is looking to be starting to rear its ugly head down this end of the planet.

cheers

Wayne

[Craig]

Thanks for the pix Wayne. I didn't read all of the text before watching the video and thought it was a video cam! Your boat looks great with the red and white paint. IS that fresh water or salt?

v/r

Craig

[waynemunro]

The water is salt, in fact if I'd turned right and gone a couple of miles, it the pacific.

The experiment with the underwater viewing was doubly flawed, as not only could I not hold the camera against the force of the water without breaking the pole I was using, but the water in the harbour is so dirty due to the tidal mud flats, that the visibility is only about a handspan anyway.

I am going to a ffresh water lake for easter, so might try again then, maybe make an hydrodynamic fairing for the camera

[Frank Hagan]

I'm on a dial up connection at home, but I opened the link and let it load in the back ground anyway .... what a kick! It really worked well, I think, except for the underwater shot (as you noted). I did get a feeling of "oh no, we're going to get wet!" for a minute there.

The trim on your Weekender looks great ... do you have ballast in the forepeak?

[waynemunro]

yeah, I think I have over 30kg of ballast in the front (including the anchor and chain). when I first launched the trim was waay off, as you can see in my avatar. I don't know if this was because of the weight of the outboard, the weight of me, or something I did differently in the buiding process (perhaps the plywood keel??)... however the first few trips out the weekender was really unstable, when i added the forepeak weight it was a whole different trip.

Glad you liked the videos, I quite enjoyed looking at them, I had not got to see what it looked like at the front while going through the water before.

[JMetzner]

Wayne,

Great video! Except for <cough>, <gack> phrrtp, underwater part! What kind of weight do you have in the bow of that Weekender?!?! Maybe a 35kg. sand bag? No problems with pounding in chop I bet.

--John M.

[waynemunro]

John,

I actually weighted the front of the weekender with soft drink bottles. I figured the weight may as well get useful, so when I get really thirsty I can drink some of my ballast. also if I do happen to turn turtle, then the ballast is neutraly boyant, well that was my theory anyway.

Wayne