I've settled for a 5 litre plastic bottle tied to the head of the sail by a lanyard about 20 cm long. This allows the float to blow away from the sail and allows me to see the wind direction indicator at the masthead. This arrangement undoubtedly causes significant drag but is probably less disruptive than a 90 cm float lying along the leading edge of the sail. both work well having capsized in anger with both arrangements.
If the boat has a pocket luff, then the quickest, most effective solution is to stuff a pool noodle up the mast section. Make sure you use the hollow type noodle so water can drain back.
How about running a line from the top of the forestay to the top of the mast - and use it to secure a hollow pool noodle - or even a large-bore closed cell pipe insulation? (same thing really) If taut, it shouldn't affect the sail dynamics much or hauling the sail up, but provide good flotation? Not sure if you could find one that fit around the mast itself. Haven't tried it, but a few swims last year from my ISO are making me think about it.
Good vid, well done. I bought the 9-litre float a few years ago, although I'm mostly very careful not to capsize. But I calculated that it actually has less than 8 litres capacity. It's crazily costly for no better function than the bottles provide.
If your dinghy is a bit bigger and has little spreaders like the ones in our Sailing club, then just put hollow poolnodles the shrouds over the spreaders. The colour let´s you differentiate boats easily during a race and it does a nice job as a float.
That is an excellent idea , or you could fix on pipe insulation (from DIY shop) to the spreaders. They are already marked to be slotted with a knife and could be fixed with zip ties. I'm not sure how good the buoyancy effect but where the spreaders are gives better support to the mast on the water.
I just found a 4 euro inflatable "stool" here in Norway in a cheap furniture store. It has 45 cm in diameter and is shaped like a cylinder. Unsure about the height, but at least 45 cm. So volume is at least 71 L. My dinghy is 17 feet. Will try it out, but compared to your milk bottles my plan is maybye an overkill..?
Well the main thing is not to go turtle - or at least not have your mast go very deep (and get stuck in something unpleasant) I submit that a 2 quart or 2 liter size bottle should be enough. The deeper the bottle goes, the more bouyant it becomes. I actually use milk bottles to tie to my mooring chains here on lakes in the winter. I allow enough water into a bottle to allow them to submerge a couple of feet so the ice doesn't get to them in the winter. Saves having divers charges in the spring. If you do this make sure you take pictures of landmarks that you can triangulate the position of the mooring in the spring. At any rate - the partially submerged bottles back up my theory about the size of bottle required toi prevent a boat from going full turtle. I need to do some experimentation with this some more though ;-)
Would be good if masts were supplied with a little extra free length above the sail pulley sufficient to install a wrap around buoyancy aid. It would look better and perform better. I notice that both the bought item and your milk bottle variants did not utilise their full buoyancy due to standing above the water.
Sorry, forgot to mention: Here in NZ, we still have PET bottles for carbonated drinks. They're indestructible, and reseal well. Way more durable than milk bottles.
Any color other than black is not electrical tape, it's marking tape. Only black has legally-mandated dielectric properties. This does not mean all black tape IS electrical tape. You have to look at the label for approvals from the governing bodies. I say this because a flimsy layer of polymer and adhesive, though better than bare copper to touch, is not to be relied upon as proper, dielectric insulating, electrical tape.
Using these runs the substantial risk of reducing the turtle population. Turtles won't stand a chance! Wish I had one two days ago. 11 degree water gets a bit nippy after 45 minutes.
I've settled for a 5 litre plastic bottle tied to the head of the sail by a lanyard about 20 cm long. This allows the float to blow away from the sail and allows me to see the wind direction indicator at the masthead. This arrangement undoubtedly causes significant drag but is probably less disruptive than a 90 cm float lying along the leading edge of the sail. both work well having capsized in anger with both arrangements.
If the boat has a pocket luff, then the quickest, most effective solution is to stuff a pool noodle up the mast section. Make sure you use the hollow type noodle so water can drain back.
How about running a line from the top of the forestay to the top of the mast - and use it to secure a hollow pool noodle - or even a large-bore closed cell pipe insulation? (same thing really) If taut, it shouldn't affect the sail dynamics much or hauling the sail up, but provide good flotation? Not sure if you could find one that fit around the mast itself. Haven't tried it, but a few swims last year from my ISO are making me think about it.
Good vid, well done. I bought the 9-litre float a few years ago, although I'm mostly very careful not to capsize. But I calculated that it actually has less than 8 litres capacity. It's crazily costly for no better function than the bottles provide.
Thanks. Yeah, only reason to buy the floats is they look better. But if you're only concerned with function the milk bottles seem pretty much as good
If your dinghy is a bit bigger and has little spreaders like the ones in our Sailing club, then just put hollow poolnodles the shrouds over the spreaders. The colour let´s you differentiate boats easily during a race and it does a nice job as a float.
That is an excellent idea , or you could fix on pipe insulation (from DIY shop) to the spreaders. They are already marked to be slotted with a knife and could be fixed with zip ties. I'm not sure how good the buoyancy effect but where the spreaders are gives better support to the mast on the water.
I just found a 4 euro inflatable "stool" here in Norway in a cheap furniture store. It has 45 cm in diameter and is shaped like a cylinder. Unsure about the height, but at least 45 cm. So volume is at least 71 L. My dinghy is 17 feet. Will try it out, but compared to your milk bottles my plan is maybye an overkill..?
Well the main thing is not to go turtle - or at least not have your mast go very deep (and get stuck in something unpleasant) I submit that a 2 quart or 2 liter size bottle should be enough. The deeper the bottle goes, the more bouyant it becomes. I actually use milk bottles to tie to my mooring chains here on lakes in the winter. I allow enough water into a bottle to allow them to submerge a couple of feet so the ice doesn't get to them in the winter. Saves having divers charges in the spring. If you do this make sure you take pictures of landmarks that you can triangulate the position of the mooring in the spring. At any rate - the partially submerged bottles back up my theory about the size of bottle required toi prevent a boat from going full turtle. I need to do some experimentation with this some more though ;-)
Would be good if masts were supplied with a little extra free length above the sail pulley sufficient to install a wrap around buoyancy aid. It would look better and perform better. I notice that both the bought item and your milk bottle variants did not utilise their full buoyancy due to standing above the water.
Awesome
You can just shape a pool noodle to fit inside your mast head. Just leave a channel for the halyard & to assit draining the mast.
Sorry, forgot to mention: Here in NZ, we still have PET bottles for carbonated drinks. They're indestructible, and reseal well. Way more durable than milk bottles.
Im going to use a £7 pool bouy on my wayfarer as it’s light and foam . Anything but this expenive products for purpose
Kitty litter containers come in various sizes, should work well also.
Not seen it done but yup, I expect they could work too
Any color other than black is not electrical tape, it's marking tape. Only black has legally-mandated dielectric properties.
This does not mean all black tape IS electrical tape. You have to look at the label for approvals from the governing bodies.
I say this because a flimsy layer of polymer and adhesive, though better than bare copper to touch, is not to be relied upon as proper, dielectric insulating, electrical tape.
Using these runs the substantial risk of reducing the turtle population. Turtles won't stand a chance!
Wish I had one two days ago. 11 degree water gets a bit nippy after 45 minutes.
RIP turtles 🐢 😂