Kiting

-
So last weekend we headed to the beach to try out the my new camera and play in the sand.  The water temperatures here are still very cold.  There were a few kids playing along the shoreline but none of them were venturing in past their knees.  With our long cold winter the lakes are taking a bit longer to warm up than normal. 


  So I picked up this mini camera on Ebay with the thoughts of using it as a kite cam.  It is super small and very light.  Also it was inexpensive at $13 so if it crashes into the ground or lake I'm not out much.   I rigged it to a para-foil.  This first attempt resulted in unusable video.   Next time I'm going to try to rig it to a delta or a box kite and see if I can get a more stable video.  I was able to take a few pictures on the beach not to bad for a 2 mega pixel cam the size of a quarter. 





Sorry Ruth

Comments

  1. Bill le SkeepJune 18, 2014 at 4:01 AM

    During the Nationals at the RRYC, I had my GoPro but did not have the presence of mind to stick it on the transom to take footage of the parts of the many races. Would have been instructive to have had it during some of the rounding procedures! Imagine several Dories rounding a tetrahedral together. Like elephants doing ballet!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris June 18, 2014 at 6:17 AM

      That really does sound cool. Did any of he dories have a traveler? I've been considering adding one. Even been picking up parts here and there but I'm just not sure it is worth adding a layer of complexity to this boat. Starting to think just keep it simple.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building a Spinnaker Sock DIY

-
Image
Spinnaker Socks are super nice for launching and recovering your spinnaker.  My last two boats have had them and after using one the benefits are clear. 1st off, sail handling is much easier especially if you're short-handed. 2nd, safety spinnaker socks let you launch and recover your spinnaker without everything being perfectly packed in a turtle bag another word fewer things to tangle up keeps it safer. Woodstock does not have one so we have not used the Spinnaker yet and our trip to Lake Mac last week would have been the ideal time to use a Spinnaker.  So it is time to look into this.  $17.00 per foot x 28 ft =$476 plus tax.  Hum lets go see what's in the garage.  Any past readers remember this old post Boom Tent   Well this is one sewing project that didn't work out. However, I still have the material sitting here on a shelf and it is light enough and long enough to make into a sock. Now just to find one of those fancy fiberglass hoops they use to make these things
Read more

Main sail rigging

-
Image
This post is a quick reference for rigging the main sail of a Cape Dory Typhoon.  Each boat over time has different modifications made to it based on the skippers preferences so your boat may not be exactly like this one.  However this is how I put mine together. I   first start with tuning the mast in.  I like to have a bit of rake in the mast and to be sure that it is in column.   Next I slide the booms goose neck into the mast. I slide the boom down to the sail stop and make sure it is tight with a screw driver. Then I clip the back side of the boom to the back stay catch. After that I get to work on untwisting the main sheet.   My current main sheet set up goes something like this.  It is a bit of a variation from the original set up.  You can see I still use one of the original Schafer stand up blocks to guide the sheet line to the cam cleat but the Harken fiddle block does most of the heavy lifting here.  Later this season I'm hopping to switch this system out for a traveler.
Read more

A removable compression post

-
Image
So this season I have been gearing up and changing my rigging around bit by bit as I find pieces here and there.  My ultimate goal is to  rig up a mast top spinnaker for use later in the season.  So far, I've got the mast head halyard set up.  Today I took the next step and installed a removable compression post.  My Typhoon has the saddle supports that came with older Cape Dorys but I thought it best to add a bit of extra support before trying out the mast head spinnaker. So here is what you will need:  A nice piece of teak, two other (less nice) hardwood boards for underneath the floor cut to 4 1/2 inches,  epoxy, 3M permanent mounting tape and a master lock adjustable door jam.. I routered the teak to give it a soft edge for when I bang my head into it.   Nice board ready to install. Setting the Teak upper. I drilled holes in the back of the teak plate to match the mast step through bolts.  I did not remove the mast step and put extended bolts on.  I wanted a smoot
Read more