I've seen a few photos and some video footage taken from the masthead of Hobie Island kayaks and I love the view that it provides. However, I could find no information on the web regarding the actual design of a mount so I decided to go ahead and create my own. Here it is below.
First thing to state is that if you fit the Genuine Hobie Spinnaker kit to your Adventure Island this mount won't fit!, sorry.
My biggest concern was attaching a mount o the mast itself, it needed to be none damaging and preferably without any modifications to the mast itself. These masts are not cheap!, damaging one or weakening one, quite simply wasn't an option. At the top of the AI mast is a plastic insert that is used to locate the sail securing strap (photo below)
I noticed that with the strap fitted through this plastic insert that there was still approximately 3mm of clearance between the strap and the plastic lugs. I decided to try to utilise this gap to locate and secure a camera mount to the mast. I located a piece of aluminium of the correct thickness and cut off a long strip of the correct width, filing it down to a 'sliding fit'.
My first attempt (Mk1) saw me fold the aluminium strip over on itself, allowing it to slide through the plastic mast mount before securing it with a nut and bolt as shown below.
Despite being a close fit in the mount, the bracket moved more than I liked so I added a heavy ty-wrap to lock it into position.
This worked extremely well and I thought I had a good working solution. However, the more I played with it I noticed that if it was subjected to a decent knock it would vibrate for 1-3 seconds which I deemed unacceptable.
The basically made the Mk1 scrap metal, so I moved onto designing a strengthened Mk2 version.
The horizontal section that supported the camera really needed to be solid with zero flex. The only way that I could effectively achieve this was to add an upright section along this horizontal length, thus preventing any noticeable flexing. I also took this opportunity to modify the upright section, extending it to permit the fitment of a wind indicator. I purchased a Little Hawk Mk1 for this purpose. This is a very simple indicator that attaches to a vertical surface using two small self tapping screws.
Below are a couple of photos of the welded and painted bracket. Being aluminium it's very lightweight yet its design makes it very rigid.
It slides into the top plastic mount on the AI masthead and it secured into position with a heavy duty ty-wrap as per the Mk1. It really is as simple as that and it's a very solid fit!, simple but effective as they say.
Note that a GoPro mount is fitted, I've used a nut and bolt as I envisage that the main bracket will remain fitted at all times, though you could use a 'wing nut' for quick removal of this mount if preferred.
The Hawk wind indicator mount can be seen fitted in the above photo. This is a permanent fit.
As mentioned, the bracket assembly is secured to the mast with a ty-wrap. Removal and fitment takes seconds!
The Hawk wind indicator pushes in when needed and the GoPro is also attached on as as-required basis. The whole mount, wind indicator and GoPro can be assembled and fitted in a minute, literally.
Below is the Hawk wind indicator fitted into its bracket.
Below is the GoPro secured to its mount.
Below is the fitted 'Mk2' mount complete with camera and wind indicator.
I'm going to be testing it very shortly and I'll post up some of the results - fingers crossed!
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