Portage Pack

In madagascar it is likely that we will need to walk some distance into rivers or round long sections of unrunnable rapids. Some of these walks may be across grass or through the jungle in which case it will be ok to drag the boats however to avoid wear on the hulls of the boats during walks ins or portages where we are going along paths or tracks dragging will not be an option.

Carrying boats for long distances or when they are full of kit, on one shoulder (even if you switch regularly) puts a large bending force on your spine which can cause permanent damage and back pain. Portage packs are a great way of avoiding this bending force. They are basically rucksack straps which you can attach to your kayak which allow you to carry your kayak like a rucksack.

I had a look at what was available to buy however I couldn’t afford the NRS Sherpa at £60 (much as I would have liked one) and the HF Turtle Back looked rather uncomfortable to carry.

NRS Sherpa

HF Turtle Back

I decided to make my own. I looked at the design of the NRS and HF portage packs and decided that the boat orientation on the NRS one was better as the HF one looks like you would have to bend forward a lot to avoid your feet hitting the back of the boat and the cockpit rim would also dig into your back rather a lot.

I initially built a prototype one which simply comprised of a few bits of rope and some webbing.

I used it to carry my boat just under 5km up the track to the tilt and although it was a bit uncomfortable as the webbing used for the shoulder straps dug into my shoulders it was a lot better than carrying the boat on my shoulder for that distance.

The second iteration of my homemade portage pack (and the one I will be taking to Madagascar) uses actual rucksack straps for the shoulder straps and is much more well built using a sewing machine (thanks mum :D).

It attaches round my kayak using 2 lengths of rope and is much more comfortable to wear.

Second attempt

It is less than 2 weeks to go till I go to madagascar
Check out the website and facebook page for all info on the expedition and follow us for regular updates on what we have been up to.

http://www.kayakmadagascar.co.uk/ 
https://www.facebook.com/kayakmadagascar2015

FIRE MAPLE FMS-F5 TURBO MULTI FUEL STOVE – First Look

In June 2015 I am heading out to madagascar as part of this years BUKE (British University Kayak Expedition) team (https://www.facebook.com/kayakmadagascar2015), (http://www.kayakmadagascar.co.uk/).

One of the key things will be cooking on the expedition. Standard gas stoves would not be feasible in madagascar as getting hold of the gas canisters out there would be impossible therefore we will be taking several multi fuel stoves.

There are a number of different multi fuel stoves on the market such as MSR’s “Whisperlite” and “Dragonfly”, Optimus’s “Nova”, Primus’s “Gravity”  all which come in at £100+

While researching multifuel stoves I also found one made by a chinese company called “Fire Maple” [1] who make a multifuel stove costing £70 (£45 if you buy it from china however I did not have time for it to arrive from china). Initially I crossed it off a cheap chinese rubbish however after reading a number of reviews including this one [2] I was more interested.

The “Fire maple FMS-F5 Turbo” is apparently not a burn anything type multi fuel stove however it reportedly runs best on petrol or white gas. It also has some rather impressive weight specifications:

Stove and pump – 240g
330ml fuel bottle weighs – 112g
Spare parts kit weighs – 24g
Carry pouch weighs – 16g

Total packed weight is 392g which makes it considerably lighter than any of the other multi fuel stoves on the market. The lightweight nature of the stove made it quite attractive for an expedition where we will likely be carrying our boats and kit for several days to access new rivers. For this every gram counts and I am shaving as much weight out of my boat and kit as possible. I therefore i finally decided to risk it an get one of these stoves from ultralight gear [3].

It arrived in 2 days. My initial thoughts were that the stove felt very compact and solid and the fuel bottle was very small and compact (330ml) the pump was the only bit that looked rather cheap and chinese. Made mostly from plastic you have to be careful when screwing it on to the bottle so as not to cross the plastic threads.

Following recommendations I bought a litre of primus powerfuel (a super clean burning petroleum spirit) for £6.30 from Cotswold and tested the stove. For the stove to work it requires primed by pressurising the fuel bottle and then heating up the preheat tube by burning a small amount of fuel <1ml in the priming dish beneath the burner. Priming is very quick (around 20 – 30 seconds) and then you can open up the fuel valve allowing the liquid fuel to pass through the preheating tube and be vaporized as it comes out the burner, Igniting as it is mixed with the air.

The stove burns with a rather scary/satisfying roaring (very hot) blue jet flame and rapidly heats the steel burner to almost white hot temperatures.

I ran a quick test to measure how quickly it boils 1L of water in a pan with a lid and also how much fuel was required to boil one litre including the fuel used to prime it.

The stove boiled 1L of water in 5:45 minutes and used 22g of fuel (~29ml of fuel) This means an entire fuel bottle could boil 11L of water and run continuously for around 1 hour.

I have not tried cooking food on it yet however I will write another post once I have used it more.

[1] – http://www.fire-maple.com/en/index.aspx

[2] – http://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/fire-maple-fms-f5-reviewed-by-ultralight-outdoor-gear-i360

[3] – http://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/equipment-c3/stoves-c12/liquid-multifuel-stoves-c142/fire-maple-fms-f5-turbo-multi-fuel-stove-with-330ml-fuel-bottle-p2000

£3 Custom Ear Plugs

Over the past few years I have seen a lot of articles, blog posts, websites and forums discussing the problem of Surfers Ear in kayaking. Surfer’s ear or Exostosis (abnormal bone growth within the ear canal) is a problem caused by repeated exposure of the inside of the ear, to cold water which occurs when water gets into the ear canal as a result of play boating or capsizes. If it is left untreated it can result in hearing loss and painful infections. Treatment involves the drilling or chiselling of the bone growths to remove them which is usually done under general anaesthetic. (Google it if you want to find out more about how horrible it is)

Another risk from kayaking is perforated ear drums which can cause permeant hearing loss and significant pain and carry the risk of infection.

Ear plugs are the best way of preventing surfer’s ear and also offer a good deal of protection against perforated ear drums. However I have found the cheap ones you can buy in shops just fall out as soon as you fall in. I saw custom ones being fitted at Wet West Paddle Fest’ last year however they were extortionately expensive to have, what looked like bathroom sealant, squeezed into your ear.

I considered if it was worth trying exactly that (making some out of bathroom sealant) however I decided against the idea due to the risk of an embarrassing A&E visit to have stuck sealant removed.   I therefore gave up on the idea for a while (while still worrying about it regularly).

Recently however, I came across a solution. I found a product called Sugru which is a mould-able silicon rubber which comes in little (5g) packets which cures to a solid rubbery material (which I believe is very similar to the end result of the very expensive custom ones. It adheres to most materials and I therefore decided to get some (8 x 5g packets) which cost £12.99 on Amazon (link in materials list). Through a little trial and error I managed to create my own custom ear plugs (see below) which fit really comfortably in my ear and do not fall out easily.

 

Here is instruction on how to use Sugru to make custom ear plugs.

 

Step 1

You need a bit of time to let them set in your ear so leave around 3 hours for each ear plug that you dont need to be able to hear out of one ear.

Obtain all the necessary materials listed below.

 

Sugru (2 x 5g Packets) – £12.99 for 8, http://goo.gl/938tf0

Strong Cling Film or Sandwich bag cut up

String – Thin 1-3mm thick synthetic cord works best

Few drops of olive oil – a dropper will help with this but not essential

Materials used

Step 2

Cut a 3cm length of string. Tie it in a small loop as shown in the picture as this will help the Sugru bond to the string prevent it from coming loose.

Small loop of string

Step 3

Cut a small bit of cling film off the roll or a bit of sandwich bag (10cm x 10cm) in the middle of the plastic, on one side put a few drops of oil and spread it around the middle of the cling film. This will aid the removal of the ear plugs once they have set.

Step 4

Remove the Sugru from 1 of the packets and squash it together into a slight rounded cone shape as shown in the picture below. Cut a small slit in the bottom of the cone and insert around half of the loop of the string into the slit before squeezing it back together sealing the string into the rubber. This will form an attachment point for a string to stop you losing them if you take them out on the river.

Right ear plug Pre insertion

Left ear plug pre insertion

Step 5

Place the cling film over your ear with the olive oil covered side facing your ear centred over your ear hole. Take the cone of Sugru and slowly push the tip of it into your ear (with the cling film between it and your skin). Push it in to your ear and squash it into the shape of the inside of your ear. I used a the flat end of a pen to push the Sugru in deeper for a better fit. Squash the excess Sugru into the area surrounding your ear hole to help it stay in place when it is finished. It should not fall out if you shake your head while it is tipped on its side. Take care during this stage to ensure that the loop will still work as a fixing point on the finished ear plug.

Sugru Post insertion

Step 7

Let the Sugru cure for around 3 hours taking care not to let your ears or the Sugru touch anything. After it has partially cured the ear plugs can be removed by carefully pulling on the cling film around the sugru. It should slide out fairly easily. Peel of the plastic and carefully place the ear plugs somewhere they will not be disturbed and leave for a further 24h. Attach string to the loops and you are good to go. It is worth writing on the ear plugs which is left and which is right as they will only fit properly in the correct ears. I used two different colours to aid differentiation between them. Below is pictures of the finished product. I have yet to test them on the river  however they stay in while in the shower even when I tip my head on one side and shake it. I will update this post after NSR as to how they preform while play boating.

I hope that this will aid people who up until now, like me could find no affordable solution to preventing surfers ear and protecting against perforated ear drums. If you found this helpful and as a result of saving money on custom ear plugs, can now afford to, please donate a wee bit of money to my expedition to Madagascar this summer using the link below.

http://www.gofundme.com/buke2015

Finished ear plugs

 

 

AUCC – WE FOUGHT THE ROCKS – 2013/14

Here is a summary of what Aberdeen University Canoe Club have been up to over the past year.

TOO HIGH – Trailer

Having seen the full film it is well worth the money

Get it here it is for a good cause

http://www.squarerock.co.uk/wordpress/too-high-dvd-now-available/

Sunshine in Deeside

Sunshine, Good levels, Good rivers, Good mates — The last week has been sweet on the east coat

AUCC – WE FOUGHT THE ROCKS – TEASER

OUT SOON!! The past year of AUCC’s Paddling and it has been a good one. Some serious KNAR has been run this year including Hermitage Falls and The Falls of Muick. There has also been a good deal of new members and returning members pushing themselves to their absolute limits and with 170 recorded swims this year there has been a shit ton of carnage!! All that and more will be out July 2014.

DIY Elasticated Cows Tail

Cows tails are really useful for a wide range of applications. My primary use for them is for towing boats in rescue situations, however they can also be used for attaching a person to a throw bag for a live bait or clipping to a boat when getting out to stop it floating away if it is a difficult get out.

For a long time I just used a standard 2.4m sling for these applications however it did tend to get caught on things being a closed loop and it was a rather long and was generally rather annoying.

I decided I wanted an elasticated cows tail but being a stingy skint student and also having seen how short and useless for towing the commercially available ones are.  I refused to buy on of the commercially available ones and instead I discovered how easy and cheap it is to make one yourself.

I started by buying the following materials;

— 2m of 26mm tubular sling – http://www.rockrun.com/beal-26mm-tube-tape/

— 1m of 4mm shock cord – http://www.rockrun.com/shock-cord-4mm/

— 2 screw gate crabs – http://www.rockrun.com/mammut-element-keylock-screwgate/

 

It took me ages to thread the shock cord through the tubular sling however in retrospect it would be very easy to do if you had a straight stick which you could tape the cord to and push it through. The tubular sling has to be scrunched up like this:

 

 

so that it is the same length as the shock cord.

 

To attach the crabs I first tried to sow it but without a sowing machine this was rather difficult and when you are intending on using it to take your weight in a live bait I wanted it to be strong enough.

I therefore decided that a simple overhand loop knot in the end as shown below

I had to make sure that the shot cord was trapped in the knot so that it didn’t pull out when it was stretched however with the the elastic running all the way round the knot it became too bulky and difficult to tie. I got around this problem by only having the end of the elastic in the half of the knot running from the loop part to the main length of the tape. This created some fairly tight small knots which reduces the chance of them becoming trapped between any rocks.

 

With the knots in it the stretched length of the sling is around 1.6m and the unstretched length is around 0.8m

 

It is really easy to make and you can attach whatever crabs you want to the ends of it. I use a screw gate on the end I attach to my BA and a palm large wire gate on the other end as it makes clipping boats easier.

It is so much more convenient than a sling and the materials excluding the crabs only cost £2.60 around a quarter of what palms cows tail is and it is much longer and more suited to towing boats while still being compact and easy to tuck in my BA. It is certainly strong enough for all the applications I use it for and doesn’t get tangled around me when I am trying to clip it onto a boat.

Here is a few more photos of the cows tail;

You could probably use a shorter length of elastic to make the sling scrunch up even more and make it more compact and obviously you can tailor the length to suit your specific needs.

 

Spring in Scotland – Drops, More Drops, and Hermitage Falls

Winter never really properly happened this year in Scotland, The freezing level rarely dropped below 500m and although there was a lot of snow high up, large areas of most rivers catchments received a fair bit of rain, and as it warmed up and the snow melted they were kept topped up consistently. 

With all that water about I was able to get out and paddle some of the best rivers in Scotland this spring.

DEESIDE / DON – January 

The year started off with a wee trip to the Deeside tribs on the 2nd of January in playboats. The levels were not huge but the main event on the Garbh Allt provided ample entertainment for ciaran and myself.

 

Ciaran on the entry to the last drop of the main event of the Garbh Allt

Myself on the last drop of the main event on the Garbh Allt

The rest of the river was too low to run in playboats and we walked back to the bottom after a few runs.

Having never paddled it before and with levels going up we then headed to the Garin on the north side of the dee. This turned out to be rather uneventful with a few sections of easy grade 4 but not much else.

 

Looking back up the Gairn

Following that we started heading home, however as we got to the Feugh we saw that there was a good bit of water comming down the falls and there was a lot of spectators. Feeling it would be rude not to we jumped out the car and ran up to the top with our boats. Our showing off turned into a rather embarrassing mess as, I completely missed my line and fell of the side of the drop rolling down a slab on my face. Ciaran fared even worse and despite nailing his line he found himself upside down in the hole with no paddles and after a few failed hand roles found himself swimming for the bank.

 

Ciaran having an out of boat experience on the Falls of Feugh

The rain continued overnight and the next morning I was back up on a much higher Garbh Allt, in my creek boat this time.

The main event was significantly more pushy with the higher flow.

Myself on the entry to the last drop on the main event of the Garbh Allt

Leslie Simpson on the 3rd drop of the main falls on the Garbh Allt

 

Murray Gauld on the first drop of the Garbh Allt

Below the main event I had a scary moment where I realised my helmet was not done up. Which was followed shortly after by Murray Gauld swimming on the gorge section and losing his paddles (permanently). After the Garbh Allt we went to Ballater for tea before we headed home.

Towards the end of Janurary, heavy rain and snow melt brought the Don play waves into condition, Myself and Leslie walked up to the wave at Danstone Tesco’s where we spent an hour surfing and playing. 

Myself and Leslie on the Danestone wave

After the Danestone wave we walked a bit further up and jumped on the mill wave, this was unstable and difficult to surf on and after half an hour of getting kickings on it we called it a day.

 

FALLOCH / MUICK – Feburary 

The start of Feburary was SSS glasgow polo but not being bent, Tom Leeman, Roddy Sandeman, Rory Inglis and myself headed to the rivers and were rewarded for our lack of bentness with good levels all weekend. On the Friday we ran the Braan Gorge before we headed to glasgow to drink our weight in tennants.

The next morning having found “hangover city” and done our best to cure our hangovers we headed to the Falloch. However when we got there we were all feeling rather cold and hungover and the level was looking a little low, Luckily we decided to go to the green welly and get some soup which gave us the energy to put on our wet kit and gave the river time to come up to a good level. 

Myself on the Falls of Falloch

Roddy on the Falls of Falloch 

We only ran the falls as we were too hungover to run the rest of the river.

A few days later after running the North Esk at 2.11m on the gauge. Scott Robinson, Ciaran Burgess and Myself headed up to the Falls of Muick. We got there feeling pretty stoked for it, however when we first saw it we nearly walked away. After around half an hour of inspection, I finally plucked up the courage to give it a shot.

   

The slide into the drop on the Falls of Muick

After styling the line, and landing the last drop nose up Scott decided he would give it a go to.

Scott on the first half of the drop.

Scott pencilled the last drop and discovered quite how shallow it was as his footplate folded over his feet bending them back and fracturing one of the bones in his ankle/foot, luckily the break wasnt too bad and he walked out.

Despite seeing Scott hurt himself on it Ciaran also gave it a go getting a decent line and boofing the last drop.

Ciaran just coming over the lip

Lesson Learned From The Muick – Boof or it hurts, and dagger foot plates are not very strong.

 

NEVIS / HERMITAGE – April 

Other than a few club trips to the N’Esk/Orchy/Etive/Spean etc not much else happened until April.

With some rain around on our club Easter trip, one evening we found ourselves on the Nevis at a really fun level.

It was really nice to run it with some water. 

At the end we played around on Poll Dubh for a bit.

Leslie Hammering Poll Dubh

My attempt at an Airscrew of the lip (I got scared and chucked my paddles)

Me hammering Poll Dubh

This springs paddling culminated on the river braan, on Hermitage Falls.

After a club trip I was feeling super keen to go and look at Hermitage Falls. We walked up without boats to have a look and see if they were going.

Spent a while looking at it and discussing possible lines before I decided to run it. 

We got kitted back up and set up safety and cameras covering all the angles on the drop. I borrowed some elbow pads off a mountain biker who we met there.

Finally I got in my boat and ran it, (if you can call it that)

It didnt go quite to plan, but luckily I didnt hurt myself.

 

Home made Back Deck Go Pro Mount

Homemade Back Deck Go Pro Mount

I have attempted several times in the past to make a back deck mount to attach cameras to the back of my kayak to get those cool over the shoulder shots. None of them in the past have been particularly successful either not being very stable resulting in shaky footage or not sufficiently strong enough to take the weight of the camera being shaken around at the top of a pole resulting in the failure of either the pole or the fixing mechanism. Another problem with previous attempts had been the attaching of the camera to the upright. Having recently bought a Go Pro I decided to have another shot at building a back deck mount.

Attaching an Upright to the Boat

I did some research and found several ways of attaching an upright pole to the boat. The different methods I found and their pros and cons in my opinion were:

Method of Attaching	Pros	Cons
Drilling holes in the plastic of the boat to attach a tripod like system.	Very stable and quite strong due to 3 points of fixing, Simple design so relatively quick to build.	Involves drilling holes in your boat, Paddle may get tangled when rolling, May be heavy as three uprights must be used to make it stable, A hit to the mount may rip out the bolts which hold it to the boat causing damage to the boat. Takes a while to attach.
One point clamp mechanism which clamps onto a grab handle.	Light weight, One upright so will have little effect on normal rolling, Can be fixed to any of the grab handles so many different angle s available. Fairly quick to attach.	Not very stable, Grab handle must take all the twisting force put on it by the mount which may cause damage to the boat or grab handle.
Three Point clamp mechanism which clamps to the three back grab handles.	Very Stable due to three points of fixing. Very Strong as it is fixed to three grab handles which are designed to take a lot of force.	Paddle may get tangled when rolling, May be heavy as three uprights must be used to make it stable, Fairly complicated design, Would only fit on the back of one type of boat, High material cost as a lot of parts needed to make 3 clamps and 3 supports Takes a while to attach.
Grab handle replacement with custom grab handle.	Fairly stable as by removing the need for a clamp any play in the clamp is removed, Fairly strong as fixed straight to the boat, light and cheap as very few parts needed, Single upright so will have little effect on normal rolling, Front and back grab handles on boats are usually the same so a number of different angles may be possible.	May be difficult to make without a workshop, A hit to the mount may rip out the bolts which hold it to the boat causing damage to the boat, May still have significant wobble as only one point of fixing, Takes a while to attach, possibility of losing grab handle when it is taken off to allow the mount to be attached.
“Jackson Levator” style grab handle clamp.	Stable as there is more than one point of contact with the boat, Does not put a twisting stress on the grab handle, Fairly light as only one upright, Single upright so will have little effect on normal rolling, Versatile as can attach to many types of boat and grab handle so many angles can be achieved, Quick to attach.	Quite complicated to build, Cost may be high as quite a lot of parts needed.

The attaching method I chose was the “Jackson Levator” style grab handle clamp as it seemed to be the one which had the greatest versatility stability and strength while not affecting rolling or having a high risk of causing damage to the boat or grab handles.

Attaching the Camera to the Upright

Having selected my boat fixing I now needed to figure out how to attach a camera to the top of the upright. Before I had a Go Pro I had previously used my waterproof Panasonic Lumix FT-10 when attempting to take back deck footage, however now the aim was to attach my Go Pro to the end of the upright. There were numerous considerations to be taken into account the most important being avoiding damage to the camera should it take a knock when in use. As with the boat fixing I did quite a lot of research into the best way to attach the Go Pro. The three main methods I considered were:

Method Of Attaching	Pros	Cons
Adhesive Go Pro Mount stuck to the upright.	Very Simple, Would most likely break off if it took a hit protecting the camera from damage. Very easy to attach and remove the Go Pro from the mount.	Would need a flat smooth surface to attach to.
1/4″-20 UNC Threaded Bolt which would attach to the commercially available Go Pro tripod mount.	Could be quite simple, Easy to attach and remove the Go Pro from the mount. Strong stable fixing.	Would require an epoxy resin or a complicated mechanism to attach the bolt to the end of the upright so may cost quite a lot, Go Pro tripod mount would add to the cost. May not break or bend easy enough if hit causing damage to the camera.
Commercially available Go Pro handle bar mount clamped round the upright.	Very Simple, Can be detached from the upright easily if broken or needed for another use, The “Three-way Adjustable Pivot Arm” which comes with it would bend at one of the pivots if hit protecting the camera, Cheap (£5) on Ebay.	The large fitting will add extra weight to the top of the upright.

To attach the camera to the top of the upright I chose the Commercially available Go Pro handle bar mount clamped round the upright as although not the cheapest option was very simple and quick to attach.

Building the mount

Materials List

1m 19mm steel tube, Steel curtain rail sockets which are the right size that the tube can fit through it, 38x2mm steel plate, I used scrap that I found lying around, a small 15cm aluminium pan (cut all handles etc off), many M4 bolts and nuts of different lengths 4×90° angle brackets, a long M8 bolt (must be long enough to bend into a hook at the bottom which can hook onto the grab handle while still having enough poking through the top of the pan to tighten it), a large M8 washer or metal plate and M8 nut (to tighten the M8 bolt hook)

Construction

I started by drilling a 10mm hole in the very centre of the pan. I then drilled a 22mm wide hole in the base of the pan just over half way between the centre and the edge of the pan. The distance from the centre depends on how much of an angle you want your upright to be at to the vertical – more distance to the centre = more angle between the upright and vertical. The hole needs to be wider than the tube to allow for the angle of the tube going through it.

Once the hole was drilled in the pan I positioned the curtain rail socket so that it was centred slightly further from the centre of the pan than the hole and marked out the holes I needed to attach the curtain rail socket. Having drilled the holes I bolted the socket to the base of the pan.

I then cut my steel plate into two lengths which were slightly smaller than the internal diameter of the pan and drilled a 10mm hole in the centre of each of them, with 4x4mm holes round this central hole to attach them together at right angles to each other, and also to attach the end of the 19mm steel tube which I flattened and bent at an angle to the rest of the tube. In this flat bit of tube I drilled the same arrangement of holes as in the steel plates (4x4mm holes around a 10mm hole)

I then drilled 2 holes at either end of each piece of steel plate along the middle of the steel plate spaced so that the angle brackets can be fixed to the steel plate and then to the pan walls.

The next step was to measure and drill the holes in the pan sides allowing the angle brackets to be bolted to the pan. The holes in the sides of the pan were drilled so that one was in line with the 22mm hole in the base and the rest were positioned at 90°, 180°, and 270° around the centre from the set of holes in line with the 22mm hole. All these holes were positioned so that there would be a 17mm gap between the top of the angle brackets and the top edge of the pan.

With all the holes drilled, the next step was to bolt it all together. Once bolted together the steel tube was held firmly by the hole in the base of the pan with the flat end bolted to the crossed steel plates.

The final part of the construction was to make the hook that connects the mount to the grab handle of the kayak. I bent one end the long M8 bolt up into a hook shape using a hammer. The other end of the hook then fitted up through the steel plates and then through the base of the pan where a large steel washer was put on it along with a nut which is used to tighten the hook pulling the edge of the pan against the boat.

The camera attachment was simple, as all that was required was for the handle bar mount to be clamped onto the steel tube.

Internal layout

22mm hole with steel tubing going through it.

The Hook which connects the mount to the grab handle.

The Go Pro handle bar mount attached to the steel tube

The hook tightening nut and curtain rail socket with the steel tube passing through it

The full boat fixing

The full thing

I will make some proper plans for it on some CAD software when I get back to uni so if anyone wants to build one then they can.

I will also put up some photos and video taken with this mount and some photos of it attached to my boat and in use when I have them.