GoPro Laser Mounting
Edit: A more comprehensive list of GoPro mounts and mounting locations for a Laser can be found here.
Saturday I got my boat ready for Frostbiting on Sunday and ultimately for Midwinters in a little over a week. I also put together some mounts for the GoPro camera. I had already mounted the camera to the compass mount that yielded this video from last weekend.
Pictured above is the GoPro mounted to the compass bracket just in front of the compass. This works because most of the time when I’m using the compass I’m hiked out and thus looking at the side markings on the compass. The few times when I actually want to look at the compass head on are usually when I’m checking the wind when I’m not looking and it’s easy enough to just look over the camera.
This picture is of the GoPro mounted to the Laser mast just below the goose neck facing aft on the port side of the boat. The ‘roll cage’ bracket is the right width, but the screws that come with it aren’t long enough to fit the width of the mast. A quick trip to the the hardware store for some longer screws and nuts fixed that.
To mount the camera to the bow I drilled a hole in the top of the bow eye and took one of the GoPro tripod mounts and used a bolt from underneath the bow eye to secure it. Pictured is are both the short and tall versions of the setup. The taller version gives a better perspective back to the cockpit, but being taller, it might vibrate a little more. I also plan to wrap both in tape to be sure nothing gets caught on them.
These photos show the clamp mount I made to fix the camera to the top of the mast. I used another tripod mount and bolted it to a hole I made on the side of the clamp. This mount could be used at the top of the mast, the aft end of the boom, or even on the rudder head during training.
The final location I mounted the camera to is the dolly. Normally the dolly rides upside down on top of the boat, so by mounting the camera to the side of it I can video scenes on the way to regattas to help frame the location. When the boat is on the dolly the mount can also be used to film while moving the boat around.
hi jon,
i work for a non-profit community organization in san francisco. we are sailing a 19th century replica chinese shrimp junk around the san francisco bay in september. i saw your clamp mount made to fix the camera to the top of the mast and wonder if you can tell me how you made this or make other recommendations for mounts to do this.
many thanks!
bird
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Bird Feliciano
project coordinator
Bird – there’s not much to it, just too a standard clamp that is available at most hardware stores, drilled a hole in it and used a 1/4 x 20 stainless still machine screw through the hole and into a GoPro tripod mount.
For those who are still interested, I developed a GoPro mount for Laser sailboats, and I’m making it available to the whole Laser community.
It is based on five small parts, which I have designed, that can be easily 3D printed.
I’m sharing the relevant instructions and files on Thingiverse here.