Friday 13 February 2015

Camera mount

This is per a request from Robin to capture more of the sailing experience in video format from farther back on the boat. It will hang on a screw on the mizzen mast, with a lanyard for a safety line. Can't get much farther aft than that without getting wet!
A piece of brass from somewhere on the boat, I think, which already had holes in it for some other purpose. I drilled a ¼" hole for the bolt that screws into the camera. I didn't know what to do to keep the bolt in place, but got the idea to cut a washer from a yogurt container top.
The mount is angled because the mizzen mast is angled, and I want the camera to shoot more down than up. Very easy to change, just by bending the metal.
I'll use my on-board wrench to fasten the mount onto the camera. It may happen that the camera will stay level when the boat heels, swinging on its pin—we'll have to see.

I'm very impressed with the camera on the iPad! It took better pics than the Canon S95.

Underneath the objects above is a plastic tarp that I'm making a new boom tent out of. It looks like laminated sheet vinyl with fibres between the layers, and the package says it's UV coated boat sides. The current one, a woven poly-tarp, is leaking water and raining down snowy flakes of white plastic. Sun-rotten already! I'm saving up for a proper piece of Sunbrella, but I already had this tarp from last summer, so I thought I'd use it first.