Masthead camera...are they a useful addition to accessories available today?

You are all missing the point here.

We have a 12mtr catamaran, from the helm I cant see the port bow easily and certainly not well enough to estimate my distance from boats, pontoons etc; in close quarters situations. We have a camera on the mast looking down and with the display in front of me it is easy. Scares the hell out of other boats in the marina when I happily get to within a metre of them when turning around :-)

Lets have details of your setup please. Camera, wiring, display etc

TS
 
Lets have details of your setup please. Camera, wiring, display etc

TS

Raymarine E120W plotter (which has a composite video input). This will take any composite video input so pretty much any camera on the market. Currently I have a Amazon Camera unit but just google for waterproof cctv camera. You then need a cable for it, maplin have them in various lengths up to 30mts. These are just a composite video cable with RCA connectors and a 12v power lead combined into one unit, lots of suppliers of these. All the cameras are 12v which is the standard. I then just put a basic toggle switch by the helm to switch it on and off.

In fact I use the cable from Raymarine that lets you put four cameras in as I use one of the channels to watch films from my media player which is good for night watches!

No magic anywhere, if you don't have a chart plotter with a composite video input there are loads of 12v display araund.
 
I have the Maplin underwater video camera used for checking anodes, fouled props etc. Comes with 25m of cable, colour monitor, gel battery, and a case. All for about £120. The camera could easily be hauled up the mast on a spare line and feed the pic to the monitor below.
 
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