Tag: GoPro
Posts containing containing GoPro footage and photos.
Laser GoPro Mount Locations
This article also appeared in the Fall 2012 Edition of The Laser Sailor and is now featured here as well. It was written with help from Kyle Martin.
Sport cameras are a relatively new breed of cameras that are compact, waterproof, durable and can be easily mounted on all kinds of surfaces. This makes them great for boats and sailing and especially the Laser. The footage from these cameras is great as a training aid, as a keepsake of your sailing and as a way to share sailing with friends and family – just don’t bore them with 20 minutes of you sailing upwind with nothing happening. Not only do most of these cameras do video, but they can also be used for time lapse photography either to watch the whole series, or just to pick key photos of maneuvers , scenery or technique.
Disclaimer: While great for training and pleasure sailing, cameras are not legal equipment for racing on a Laser.
There are several different brands of cameras on the market each with their own strengths, weaknesses, price points, features etc. Kyle and I both use the GoPro Hero2 cameras, but any of these cameras could be mounted in the shots below.
| Bow Pro: Easy to set and forget, sees a great scene into the boat and all of the activity in the cockpit Con: Often submerged leaving wet spots on lens, risk of snagging others mainsheet Tip: Use a tripod mount on the bow eye for the most secure attachment. How-to Video |
 |
 |
| Mast Facing Forward Tip: For best results, angle slightly off center to port. This ‘looks’ ahead around a mark or down the line on a start. Pro: Shows boats ahead of you Con: Boring video if you are in front How-to: Go Pro Mast Mount |
 |
 |
| Side Mast Facing Aft Tip: To mount use a roll-cage mount with extra long screws Pro: Similar scene as the bow, but from a higher elevation. Con: Only works upwind |
 |
 |
| Masthead Pro: Wide view shows boats around and position in cockpit Con: Unsteady in waves, weight aloft |
 |
 |
| Mid-Mast Pro: Closer view of cockpit than masthead Con: Good video one tack, ok video other tack How-to Video |
 |
 |
| Side of Boat Tip: Use a suction mount on the smooth hull surface. Pro: Interesting angles Con: more likely to be underwater, greater risk of getting banged against something |
 |
 |
| Chest Pro: Great shots of hand-over-hand activity in the cockpit, putting the viewer in your seat Con: easy to obstruct the view with hands or bang camera with tiller extension and hiking out shows all sky |
 |
 |
| Head Pro: Nice point-of-view shots Con: Scene changes fast as the wearer quickly looks around the boat to sail |
 |
 |
| Boom Facing Starboard Tip: Wrist mount fits boom perfectly Pro: Unobstructed rear view downwind Con: Completely obstructed view on port tack by sail |
 |
 |
| End of Boom Facing Forward Tip: Use roll cage mount Pro: Shows sailor in cockpit and what’s ahead when sailing upwind |
 |
 |
| Stern Facing Forward Pro: Shows sailor plus what’s ahead Con: Slight risk of snagging your mainsheet Pro: Shows sailor in cockpit and what’s ahead when sailing upwind |
 |
 |
| Side of Dolly Pro: Can be used right-side up, or down |
 |
 |
Jon Deutsch
Races Lasers, PHRF boats and anything else he can find to race and usually has a video camera running. Check out his YouTube channel.
Kyle Martin
Races Lasers and makes a variety of tips and tricks videos on how to make the most of GoPro Cameras. Check out his tips on his YouTube channel.
Other YouTubers posting Laser footage:
laserinternational, ClaySails, DCSSInstructors, Districttwelvelaser, ericjpetersen1, GRSALaser, jondeusch5, kylemartin101, laserd8, LaserPerformance, LaserTrainingCenter, lightningfleet192, nalsalam, paigesailor, prsalaser, robsuhay, rwbeigel, SailProCameras, sdalin27, syelland100, ussailing2, wjsymes, xdlaser, zorgetbetty, 5FishBoy5, raffak1, GreatDaneLaser, pgihockey13, sailingshack, lasertouring, jonemmettsailing, eshedsailing
2012 District 12 Championship
Friday
Arrived at the Columbia Sailing Club this evening and ready to sail the District 12 Championship tomorrow!
Saturday
We had a great first day of the District 12 Championship at Columbia Sailing Club in Columbia South Carolina. We sailed 5 races that at some point in each of the races we had 4 knots and 10 knots. In the lighter winds I did well on the first upwind leg most races and worked hard to hold onto my spot on the downwinds. I put up a 3-2-8-1-2 and am currently 2 points out of first behind John Potter from Beaufort SC. Tomorrow will be another light air day and hopefully I can keep up the top 3 finishes to have a shot at the title.
Provisional Results (the winner in race 3 will be RET and everyone moves up one)
Sunday
The forecast for the last day of the Laser District 12 Championship was for light air and as we were sailing out to the race course we had great wind – 10-12 knots. By our 10am start it had dropped at bit and it continued to go down from there. Today was a basically a two-boat race. Unless I put up two DFLs it would have been hard not to get 2nd place. Once a drop would be factored in, I was effectively 1 point behind John Potter, so it would come down to today’s races as to who won the regatta.
In our first race today I had a crummy start – I just about won the boat, but had no boat speed at the start. John was to leeward of me and was a boat length and a half ahead when I crossed the line. I took a big duck and headed out right while he sailed to the left. Wanting to consolidate I came back to the middle having made up some ground, but John tacked on me and forced me back to the right. On the middle right of the course I had better pressure and got in front of John, but the boats who went left did much better than us putting me around 6th and John several boats behind me by the time we rounded.
Downwind John caught up a few boats and on the 2nd upwind I stuck to the middle of the course while John went to the left. When we got to the top 3rd of the course a 50-degree righty came in and I laid the mark while John out to the left still had to tack to fetch it. At the mark there was one boat between us and downwind I worked to pass one boat on the way to the finish. With two boats between us that put me 1 point ahead of John.
After the race we sat on the course for half an hour with no prospect of wind and the race committee abandoned racing for the rest of the day and I won the District 12 Championship Regatta. Not only was John great competition this weekend, but so were sailors such as Rob Bowden who would have beat both John and I had he not been OCS twice. All in all it was a fun regatta and I got to visit a an awesome club who put on a great and I got meet a lot of new District 12 sailors.
All but the last photo courtesy of Joe Reyes
J109 GoPro Post
Sunday afternoon we made a GoPro mount for the back of a J109 that I’ll be racing in next week at the Annapolis NOOD Regatta.
We took a 8′ white wood curtain rod, fit it in the flag pole and added a GoPro to the top of it. I have yet to add a safety line and bungee tensioner to help keep it from bouncing around. Look for video from this next week.
Here’s what it looked like:
And here’s the view:
2012 FBYC Offshore Spring Series #3
Saturday’s Offshore Spring Series #3 at Fishing Bay Yacht Club wasn’t the best weather day. We did one race in very light wind against a stiff current for the first leg. The second race was abandoned after the wind died and many boats anchored to hold position on the ‘upwind’. Still in 3rd for the Series.
2012 FBYC Offshore Spring Series #1
Sailing continued on Sunday with a a string of 3rd places by Wavelength in the 3 races on the 1st day of the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Offshore Spring Series. Results.
Photo by Andrea Winner.
2012 FBYC Opening Day
Got the sailing season off to a great start on Saturday with the Opening Day Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club sailing aboard the C&C37 Wavelength. We did one 12.5 mile race out around the channel buoys to the entrance of the Rappahannock River and back. We did some great sailing which included a spinnaker peel and managed to finish 2nd in some very close racing – only 36 seconds separated the top 4 boats on corrected time. Results and Pictures.
Running the 2012 Monument Ave 10k
After standing on the sidelines for 3 years cheering on friends and family I finally joined the 30,000 people who signed up and ran the Monument Avenue 10k. Here’s my time and some pictures of running in the rain.
Here I am running the 2012 Ukrops Monument Avenue 10k Presented by Martins.
GoPro Mast Mount
This GoPro mast mount should work for all mast sizes from a Laser on up. It was modeled after a mount seen on Layline’s website. On a Laser the mount can be used to film what’s ahead, or by putting it to the side and using some extenders can point backwards towards the cockpit. Obviously the mast rotation will result in some less than ideal shooting angles some of the time.
I used an Easy on/off bracket mast mount, but instead of using a stick-on or tripod mount, I drilled out the bracket part of a helmet mount and used two stainless steel bolts to attach it. The other solutions are probably sufficient, but I wanted something that would be bullet proof as I see myself mounting this in some places that I couldn’t exactly get to in a pinch if something went wrong.
 Mounted on a Laser mast pointed forward |
 View pointed forward |
Parts Needed:
|
Tools Needed:
|
Easy on/off bracket and GoPro Helmet Mount with an extra hole drilled in the v-mount for the mount.
GoPro Helmet mount mounted to the easy on/off bracket.
From the back showing the screws cut to the proper length with a hack saw so they didn’t protrude toward the mast any further.
*I used two 36″ Velcro straps which might be overkill for a Laser mast, but I actually found it to work quite well and be very secure.
Finished bracket mounted on a Laser mast with Velcro straps which were wrapped around the mast 3-4 times.
GoPro Panoramic Mount
A recent project of mine was to use a simple kitchen timer to build a GoPro Camera panoramic time-lapse mount. This basically lets the camera spin 360 degrees to evenly film the surrounding area. Either periodic stills can be taken or video can be recorded that can later be sped up into a time lapse.
I started with a basic kitchen timer. It’s best to find one that doesn’t have a dial on it. There are numerous egg-shaped timers that seem to work best for it. Stores like Bed Bath & Beyond or Walmart should have them. The first one I found happened to be shaped as a lady bug and cost something like $3.99. The GoPro tripod mount is $8 so with the nut and washers the total was less than $13 to make.
Parts Needed:
|
Tools Needed:
|
I took the red top off the timer by simple pulling it apart with my hands.
Next I drilled a hole slightly off-center.
Followed by threading the bolt with the washer on it up from the inside.
On the outside I put an upside down finishing washer. This isn’t a must do, but I think it made a better fit for the tripod mount.
Finally the tripod mount was added. The needle-nose pliers were used to turn the bolt from the inside while holding the tripod mount straight by hand.
Complete assembly from the front and side:
Gallery of images:
No ladybugs were harmed in the making of this mount.