Mounting a go pro

i have a go pro hero hd camera and im wondering about the best way to mount it to the bow of my laser.
im not sure about using the 3m tape provided. any recomendations apreciated
 
I used the adhesive mount (can't remember if it was the curved or straight) and added one thru bolt into the bow eye

If I had to do over again, I would use the tripod mount, with a 1/4 -20 bolt into the bow eye

In either case this works fine when you are mucking around and don't have to worry about someone looping their mainsheet over the camera (which always seems to happen whenever you have a windex mounted there or off the front of the mast at the start line for example).
 
I used the flat adhesive mount myself. I put it on the deck just aft of the bow eye so the adhesive would stick on the smooth surface. Seems to work fine but I have a have a small safety line to the bow eye just in case.

I planned to switch to the tripod mount but stalled out on finding a simple but durable enough c-clamp that I could just clamp to the bow eye instead of drilling the 1/4-so bolt into it.

Now if anyone could come up with a simple design for mounting it at the back of the boat. . .
 
I recently got a gopro for my laser. The best way to mount it onto your boat is to use the suction cup mount (around 30 bucks). You attach the mount right beside the rudder on the back of your boat. WHen you do this, you get some of your footwork, your sail, you, and the boats in front of you into the picture. Make sure to tie on a safety line just incase it does fall off. but it hasn't happened to me or any of my friends who have one.
 
PHP:
this is a screen shot of some video i took with the gopro mounted on the back with a suction cup
 

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I used the self adhesive mount on the bow for a bit but I wasn't thrilled with the angle.

So I got some 1/4-20 allthread and cut it to about 8" long. I drilled a hole in the top of the bow eye and used a couple nuts to hold it to the boat. At the camera end I used the tripod mount. It works ok and gets a little better angle than the deck mount but it requires a hole in the boweye.

So for the next option I got the suction cup and tried it on the stern. It was better but the angle was still too low and I wanted to get it up higher. I couldn't find any exyension arms or something similar to buy ready made for a reasonable price so I decided to make my own.

I took a broken carbon tiller extension and cut it down to 18" long. At each end I epoxied a 1/4-20 bolt with about 3/4" of the thread sticking out.

Using:
GoPro Suction Cup Mount
2 GoPro tripod mounts
miscellaneous pieces from the GoPro Grab Bag of Mounts
& the above mentioned cut-down tiller extension

I made a mount like this.
gopromount104.JPGgopromount105.JPGgopromount108.JPGgopromount109.JPGgopromount112.JPG

It took a little work to get the angle right and to attach the guy lines. What I found worked best was to tie the upper guys with a large bowline to the traveller fairleads and from there I ran a line under the gunwale around the stern to each bowline to tighten it up. I tied a loop into the back part and then attached a lower guy to add some stability. gopromount111.JPGgopromount113.JPGgopromount116.JPGgopromount117.JPGgopromount118.JPG
It worked pretty well through a week of clinic even with capsizes and getting caught with the mainsheet in the occasional bad gybe. Getting all the joints as tight as possible was important as well as taking most of the slack out of the guy lines (a couple early tries had the mount slowly sagging backwards until it dragged in the water). Now that I have it set up I plan to replace the thumb screws on the various pieces with screws to make it a little smoother and have that much less to snag the mainsheet on.

Here's a screen shot of the resulting view: View attachment SnapShot.bmp
 
I used the self adhesive mount on the bow for a bit but I wasn't thrilled with the angle.

So I got some 1/4-20 allthread and cut it to about 8" long. I drilled a hole in the top of the bow eye and used a couple nuts to hold it to the boat. At the camera end I used the tripod mount. It works ok and gets a little better angle than the deck mount but it requires a hole in the boweye.

So for the next option I got the suction cup and tried it on the stern. It was better but the angle was still too low and I wanted to get it up higher. I couldn't find any exyension arms or something similar to buy ready made for a reasonable price so I decided to make my own.

I took a broken carbon tiller extension and cut it down to 18" long. At each end I epoxied a 1/4-20 bolt with about 3/4" of the thread sticking out.

Using:
GoPro Suction Cup Mount
2 GoPro tripod mounts
miscellaneous pieces from the GoPro Grab Bag of Mounts
& the above mentioned cut-down tiller extension

I made a mount like this.
[ATT ACH]7441[/ATTACH][ATT ACH]7442[/ATTACH][ATT ACH]7443[/ATTACH][ATT ACH]7444[/ATTACH][AT TACH]7445[/ATTACH]

It took a little work to get the angle right and to attach the guy lines. What I found worked best was to tie the upper guys with a large bowline to the traveller fairleads and from there I ran a line under the gunwale around the stern to each bowline to tighten it up. I tied a loop into the back part and then attached a lower guy to add some stability. [ATTA CH]7446[/ATTACH][ATT ACH]7447[/ATTACH][AT TACH]7448[/ATTACH][ATT ACH]7449[/ATTACH][ATT ACH]7450[/ATTACH]
It worked pretty well through a week of clinic even with capsizes and getting caught with the mainsheet in the occasional bad gybe. Getting all the joints as tight as possible was important as well as taking most of the slack out of the guy lines (a couple early tries had the mount slowly sagging backwards until it dragged in the water). Now that I have it set up I plan to replace the thumb screws on the various pieces with screws to make it a little smoother and have that much less to snag the mainsheet on.

Here's a screen shot of the resulting view: [ATTA CH]7451[/ATTACH]

That's the best one I've seen. Someone needs to start manufacturing those. I've considered buying a GoPro or similar, both for cycling and sailing. It would be nice to have in cycling races to see where I missed a gap or went wide or something, and I'd use it on the road so that I can have proof when some jackass runs me down.

I'd definitely buy a mount like that, although considering how often I still catch my mainsheet on the transom, I'm not sure I wouldn't rip that off constantly. Do you give a huge pull on the sheet above the block during a gybe to keep the excess in the boat?
 
Hi,
Would mounting a GoPro on the tiller with the 3M tape work? I have seen a YouTube video like this and I like it.(http://www.youtube.com/user/gavalarslade#p/a/u/2/DP140NrP1Lo ) The only thing I am worried about is that I don't know if it would get caught up in the main sheet when I jibe like it sometimes does on the transom. This would probably rip it off and into the water, so I don't know if it would get caught or be fine. I don't want to buy anything like the suction cup but I would like some advice before I get out on the water with it.
Thanks,
Parker
 
to mount mine to the bow i cut out a 'tear' shape from a pice of perspex and stuck the 3m mount to that.

i then measured up the bow eye screw holes against it and drilled some corisponding holes in it.

the existing screws in my bow eye wer long enough to hold the bow eye and perspex as the perspex is less then 1cm thick.

i think it works perfect and there is no movement in it and it survived a capsize no bother.

http://www.laserforum.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=7455&stc=1&d=1305726173



http://www.laserforum.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=7456&stc=1&d=1305726173
 

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the surf mount requires a big smooth surface that is no where on a laser apart from underneath the water line

The deck in front of the mast is not big enough? Since it is designed for surf boards I would think that the adhesive is designed for rough surfaces as surf boards have some sort of grip on the topside


also building a custom mount that screws in to the bow eye holes would probably be my choice
 
I'd definitely buy a mount like that, although considering how often I still catch my mainsheet on the transom, I'm not sure I wouldn't rip that off constantly. Do you give a huge pull on the sheet above the block during a gybe to keep the excess in the boat?

What I learned in the clinic about my gybes was to sheet in better just before the gybe and keep the pressure in the sail and the boat moving - when there is no pressure in the sail is when the sheet drags in the water and catches. I'm probably not describing it well but when I do good gybes it doesn't catch. When I gybe badly, sometimes it catches but even when the sheet gets caught up in the mount it wasn't that big a deal. Most of the time it would just be caught on the transom corner.

The effect on the mount was that it would move it out of alignment and I'd just have to push it back in place. I had enough redundancy with the guy lines that I was fairly confident the whole thing wouldn't come off and the arm is back further so it isn't as likely to snag. The setup survived a week of a master's training clinic so it was pretty durable - the worst that happened was the occasional times it was knocked out of alignment and the video was pointing to the sky or something.
 
The deck in front of the mast is not big enough? Since it is designed for surf boards I would think that the adhesive is designed for rough surfaces as surf boards have some sort of grip on the topside

No surf board that I have ever seen has any kind of rough area. They are very smooth, generally polished fiberglass. Your feet get traction from a sticky wax applied to the board.
 
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Ok so I dont own this site thats linked below but i came across it when i asked a guy of youtube about his camera mounts and this is from his blog

http://www.jdeutsch.com/2011/02/13/gopro-laser-mounting/

I think its a really useful account showing you how all his cameras are mounted...lots of the shots i never would have thought of..

So good ideas but I think that the mast mount below the goose neck would not be a good spot because our masts rotate and hard to keep the person in the picture not to mention it would be a wild visual doing a gybe (from extreme left view to extreme right view)
 
Ok again I dont own this video but this is from the guy that did that blog post

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXYCIcRss1U&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXYCIcRss1U&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

I think that it shows all the camera angles on the blog..I thought I would post it just to show you the results from his blog.
 
Another good mount that I didn't post a picture of to the blog is the wrist strap mounted to the starboard side of the boom. Makes for some great shots of the start and good clean video on the runs. Just doesn't work for the port tacks upwind as you are looking at the sail.

This mount: http://gopro.com/camera-mounts/hd-wrist-housing/

Example of some videos from it:
 
If you don't want to spend the money on the tripod mount for the front mount you can just cut out the black packaging mount that the GoPro came in and then it becomes a mount. when you have done this you can cut out a piece of PVC board so it can fit inside of the packaging mount then drill a hole in the PVC so you can put a bolt in, put the bolt through the hole and scuff everything up so the epoxy can stick and then put the epoxy on the PVC and in the mount. Put epoxy everywhere and make sure to tape up the holes on the mount so the epoxy doesn't leak through and mess up the mount.Then just wait for it to dry and drill a hole in the plastic piece on the bow and put the epoxied together bolt and mount in the hole and out the wing nut underneath and you have a mount!

parkpark
 

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