Hermit
Well-known member
I suppose if there is nothing on TV/YBW we could always watch our anchors. Will this be the new video trend by livaboards?
'Baby monitor' for anchors launches
'Baby monitor' for anchors launches
Another anchor thread - Anchor Baby Monitor
- Thread starter Hermit
- Start date
stephen_h
Active member
So how does that connect to your phone at the surface? Does wifi work underwater?
Hermit
Well-known member
I presume a cable goes up the anchor line to the anchor bouy and wifi/bluetooth from there?
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
Wifi won't pass through water (well, maybe it would a limited depth of fresh water, but none at all in salt water)
However, looking at the photo on the web page, it looks like the camera is on the surface in the pyramidal buoy, and there's no problem with communication through air. It does mean that the depth at which is might be useful is limited, and of course, it needs clear water!
Hermit
Well-known member
I think the camera is in the anchor line just a few feet up from the buoy. The bout is just an antenna.
doug748
Well-known member
Excellent, we can all do Panope style anchor videos. Endless scope for rows about anchoring ☺
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
Only works in clear water - you're quite safe from East Coast sailors posting such videos! And we can use whatever anchor we like, safe in the knowledge that no-one will ever know!
Concerto
Well-known member
Being an East Coast sailor I thought I would post simulated anchor views.
Calm water.
Tide running fast.
Calm water.
Tide running fast.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
The second shows far more detail than it would in reality
Neeves
Well-known member
You can have rows about anchors without video - so much easier.
I've been waiting for someone to invest in an underwater drone, of which there are now a decent few, but most need deep pockets (the cheapest applicable model in the link below is around stg300/350. They all seem to rely on a tether from drone to float and then WiFi
The best underwater drones and ROVs in 2021
Jonathan
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LONG_KEELER
Well-known member
How about a partial glass bottom and a pair of binoculars.
Always enjoyed those tripper tours in the Med .
Always enjoyed those tripper tours in the Med .
Neeves
Well-known member
Not such a daft idea...
Someone of repute of the racing fraternity in Hong Kong had a glass panel, presumably acrylic, installed so that before the start of a race they could check that the prop was fully folded. I imagine this worked well for a prop but an anchor is a bit further away (or down) and water clarity dictates what you can sensible see.
Jonathan
Stemar
Well-known member
That set my mind a-wandering, and I thought of the access boxes above the props on a lot of narrowboats to allow weed and shopping trolleys to be removed. Granted they'd take up a bit of space, but a few of us would have found them pretty useful at times. Are they really so impracticable?
Neeves
Well-known member
Someone on my crew was always happy to go for a dip, the sea in HK is quite warm 365. The biggest issue might be fouling but PropSpeed now have a (I assume its transparent) AF for hull lights (the must have for every MoBo) and if they allow light to be noticed it must be good enough for a view of a prop (with or without supermarket trolley). When we sailed in HK the biggest problems were getting polythene bags round the prop - it was a common issue
Personally I think it would be a good idea but might need to be a screw in fitting so that you could change the glass panel if/when it became a bit cloudy. Possibly it would be supplied like a log with a blank.
Certainly if you had a problem you could define how big the problem was with a quick glance and it should not be a problem ensuring the 'window' was faired into the hull.
Maybe YBW could register the design and call it 'The Scuttlebutt window' ?
Jonathan
Personally I think it would be a good idea but might need to be a screw in fitting so that you could change the glass panel if/when it became a bit cloudy. Possibly it would be supplied like a log with a blank.
Certainly if you had a problem you could define how big the problem was with a quick glance and it should not be a problem ensuring the 'window' was faired into the hull.
Maybe YBW could register the design and call it 'The Scuttlebutt window' ?
Jonathan
Laminar Flow
Well-known member
I knew a couple of steel boats that had a piece of perspex in the bottom - by the time they ever got anywhere with sufficient clarity in the water to see something, they, ahem, couldn't. Unless, of course, one has a particular interest in viewing algae close up and upside down.
If one cannot tell from the boat speed whether the prop is folded, one does have to wonder why it was installed in the first place.
After spending five years in Holland and environs where we often anchored in 2m or less and where there wasn't a chance in hell we would ever see out hook once down I would suggest the piece of technology on offer would have a rather limited geographic range of application.
It reminds me a bit of the bureaucrat in the Dutch marine police who came up with the bright idea to purchase a submarine to spy on yachties in the murky, not to mention shallow, depths of the Dutch harbours to catch folk pumping their heads overboard. It was presented at HISWA as a new, cutting edge technology to combat pollution and promptly christened "Turd Diver" by the amused public. Apparently, the idea, if not the craft itself and it's instigator, was quietly sunk thereafter - you can't see sh** in Dutch waters.
If one cannot tell from the boat speed whether the prop is folded, one does have to wonder why it was installed in the first place.
After spending five years in Holland and environs where we often anchored in 2m or less and where there wasn't a chance in hell we would ever see out hook once down I would suggest the piece of technology on offer would have a rather limited geographic range of application.
It reminds me a bit of the bureaucrat in the Dutch marine police who came up with the bright idea to purchase a submarine to spy on yachties in the murky, not to mention shallow, depths of the Dutch harbours to catch folk pumping their heads overboard. It was presented at HISWA as a new, cutting edge technology to combat pollution and promptly christened "Turd Diver" by the amused public. Apparently, the idea, if not the craft itself and it's instigator, was quietly sunk thereafter - you can't see sh** in Dutch waters.
Concerto
Well-known member
Surely the better thing to do is fit a folding propeller rather than fitting a perspex panel.
Laminar Flow
Well-known member
Ah, my understanding was that the perspex was to observe wether the several thousand (add currency of choice) shaft decor was doing it's thing, as I assume that any decrease in speed under sail was, apparently, too subtle to ascertain in the case of a deployment failure.
Neeves
Well-known member
You would need to be very sensitive to boat speed near a starting line to know if the prop is fully folded or 'almost' fully folded. Maybe you have come second by 1 minute after 20nm race and an 'almost' folded prop would determine the addition of crystal, or not. In the absence of a spy hole - I always had a crew member over board. But then we were CHS champions 2 years in a row. But maybe we were lucky and others relied on 'feel' rather than certainty. Maybe I should have been conscious of crew well being and had the spyhole installed.......?
Jonathan
Jonathan
Stemar
Well-known member
But you're heading towards a hotly contested start line, and things seem a bit slower than you'd like, so you look through the panel and see that the folding prop's got itself stuck or there's a mass of weed round it. What next, skipper?
Frogmogman
Well-known member
It’s more usual to have a mark on the prop shaft so that one can see that the folding prop is correctly aligned so that the blades are side by side, rather than one above the other (in which case the lower blade can drop down). Makes for less holes in the hull than having a window too.
Jeremy Rogers built a one tonner called Constance of Lymington in the mid 80s for Sir Clive Martin, (who went on to be Lord Mayor of London) which used the moulds of the Doug Peterson designed Rogers 39 from 1979 (as in Eclipse, Jeremy Rogers Admirals cupper) with a new keel designed by David Allan Williams, which pivoted on a vertical axis. The idea was that it would make the boat shoot upwind. One feature was that the keel had tell tails on its trailing edge, and windows so that the keel trimmer could keep the telltales flying. It didn’t work, of course, even with Jeremy driving it. Tho the 39 was a great hull, by 1985 it was very outdated, and the rating penalty for a moveable appendage more than destroyed any advantage. The keel windows did make for a unique and interesting feature, mind you.
Jeremy Rogers built a one tonner called Constance of Lymington in the mid 80s for Sir Clive Martin, (who went on to be Lord Mayor of London) which used the moulds of the Doug Peterson designed Rogers 39 from 1979 (as in Eclipse, Jeremy Rogers Admirals cupper) with a new keel designed by David Allan Williams, which pivoted on a vertical axis. The idea was that it would make the boat shoot upwind. One feature was that the keel had tell tails on its trailing edge, and windows so that the keel trimmer could keep the telltales flying. It didn’t work, of course, even with Jeremy driving it. Tho the 39 was a great hull, by 1985 it was very outdated, and the rating penalty for a moveable appendage more than destroyed any advantage. The keel windows did make for a unique and interesting feature, mind you.
