Craig Hollins is the man with vision - night vision!

Have you ever noticed how the best speedsailing conditions often come at night? Craig has and he devised a plan. He has sourced these great LED lights that have an amazing amount of light output and mounted them to his helmet.

Monday night was their speedsailing debut and he and Mat found they worked very well. So well it looked like they were going to keep going all night long, but the batteries last only 3 hours.

It was blowing a solid 25 knots SW and low tide. Pefect fun conditions for daytime sailing and it seems that it was great at night as well. Here are some shots I managed to capture despite the lack of a powerful enough flash:

BTW, the white specs on the pictures are sand grains reflecting the flash.

Yes only a madman such as Kato would do such a thing

Well we did it and it was an absolutely amazing experience.
A big thanks to Andrew from Ay-up for supplying the gear, Matt and Alistair for joining me in this crazy experience and Jodi (from whitecaps photo’s) and Daffy for having a go at getting the photos.

After sailing all day and the cold starting to take its toll, most of the sailors packed up and called it a day (Whimps)

Fired up with hot food and chips (Thanks Jodi) we assembled the lamps. Having only 3 sets, we mounted 1 on each helmet and taped the connection with grey tape.

We discussed the safety stuff….Don’t squash the stingrays, No patting the big bities and don’t look at each other when sailing past each other and if the lights fail we had glow sticks tucked into our harnesses.

First Run: It was like being in your own little world, just connected to the bank by the beam of light. Amazing amount of sand showed up in the light which made it a bit foggy. Inspired by Matts jibing I had a go on the CA40.Got most of the way around then crashed. F**K, forgot to do up the chip strap on the helmet and both were floating away. Quick dive across the gear and bung it back on my head. DO UP STRAP. Test 1 done. The lights and battery are water proof. Did another test and smashed head first into the water. They work under the water too.

Finely got Al onto the water with his kite (too many strings round the wrong way) Kites [}:)]
For the next hour we buzzed the bank. Had to slow down at one stage when I closed up behind Al. Amazing to see the kite lit up at night. Who said kites were fast
Watching from the bank it looked like floating lights zooming across the water.
UFO, s
Got some interested spectators who thought it was motor bikes running up and down the spit.
With a dropping wind and tied bodies we called it a day (Night)

Would I do it again?......In a minute

Next time…2 sets of lights min per helmet
……………A lamp or 2 on the bank as a reference point to aim at

Bring on the next one

Good work fellas

But how easy is the vision of the surroundings with the light?

You fellas are great sailors, would an intermediate be able to do this?

Now we need to see what the sailing/light looks like from the sailors perspective

Maybe strapping a helmet cam beside the lights would show this

How were the speeds?

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dism said...

Good work fellas

But how easy is the vision of the surroundings with the light?

You fellas are great sailors, would an intermediate be able to do this?

Now we need to see what the sailing/light looks like from the sailors perspective

Maybe strapping a helmet cam beside the lights would show this

How were the speeds?

We were surprised with how much we could see,but it would be much better with the 3 lights.

At the pit or a location that has something to help guide you, an intermediate sailor could to this.

Yes to camera. Anyone got one to lend?

36kts compared to 38s durning the day

Night sailing the video!

Not much to see except the lights until the guys come past and do a gybe. Watch for the bit where Mat crosses in front of Craig and lights his sail up.

Not a real good spectator sport

Good stuff, all the best suspense packed movies are made in the low light. Should get some of those head lights for our late easterlies. Canberra has the odd hazard. Can you see far enough ahead to avoid a goose or a swan out there who doesn't have lights on his head?

Very cool!

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Ian K said...

Good stuff, all the best suspense packed movies are made in the low light. Should get some of those head lights for our late easterlies. Canberra has the odd hazard. Can you see far enough ahead to avoid a goose or a swan out there who doesn't have lights on his head?

Yes!! Scared the crap out of a sleeping bird as I went round it.

For safety you may want to have a light illuminating the sail.

On some sails a light on top of a cam above the boom would light up the luff pocket above your sight line. But if the material is opaque it is a waste of light. 2008 KAs wouldn't work.

What about a night time category in the GPSTC?!

We could have all the usual categories and then, for example, the fastest 500 between 10pm & 4am!

It must be hard seeing the lulls and gusts

Gusty effort i say

That's amazing. Now how about some night wave sailing. hehe.

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kato said...

Not a real good spectator sport

a bit like watching submarine racing??
great initiative we may have to try here..well done guys!

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sailquik said...

Night sailing the video!

Not much to see except the lights until the guys come past and do a gybe. Watch for the bit where Mat crosses in front of Craig and lights his sail up.

Min Min lights[}:)]

Craig

For Lighting along the strip you can get some great LED hazard lights from Dick smith

{edit} sorry posted a dicky link
http://search.dse.com.au/search?p=R&srid=S2%2d2&lbc=dseau&w=lights&url=broke%3a%2f%2fwww%2edse%2ecom%2eau%2fcgi%2dbin%2fdse%2estorefront%2fen%2fproduct%2fL5670&rk=25&uid=844544077&sid=7&ts=new&rsc=RkiCy-gQvg-5YEck&method=and&isort=score&sessionid=4910ca8403eea8e8273fc0a87e0106db



These can either flash or be left as constant on, runs on 4 AA batteries and can be seen for 2km's, I got one of these for marking the car location for winter evening sailing on the estuary.

At $10 a pop they are good value for money

Hi Kato,

What happened to your darth vadar helmet? That's right you wouldn't be able to see the big noah's with that on. Sounds like fun

Cheers.

Can anyone recall who put up the topic with the three lights attached to the helmet a few days back? From my scatter brain memory, it was for bikes and other usage, but would suit us the same I think?
Anyway, who stocks these lights in WA, Dick Smith....maybe?

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mineral1 said...

Can anyone recall who put up the topic with the three lights attached to the helmet a few days back? From my scatter brain memory, it was for bikes and other usage, but would suit us the same I think?
Anyway, who stocks these lights in WA, Dick Smith....maybe?

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=42803

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AUS1111 said...

What about a night time category in the GPSTC?!

We could have all the usual categories and then, for example, the fastest 500 between 10pm & 4am!

Now, now. You shouldn't go encouraging us crazy people....

Thanks Elmo

hey elmo you might need to hook an electric fence thing onto it to deter the locals from STEALING IT.

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slowboat said...

hey elmo you might need to hook an electric fence thing onto it to deter the locals from STEALING IT.

Elmo, if you do, better make sure you give the hardie fella very specific instructions on how to turn it off!!!

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slowboat said...

hey elmo you might need to hook an electric fence thing onto it to deter the locals from STEALING IT.

This is Mandurah, us locals is generally to lazy to steal.

We normally put it on the front of the car being directional unless you are basically in front of it you don't see any light. Also got a 12v strobe light which I have yet to wire up.

Definite necessity down here on the gloomy afternoons, you end up out in the middle and all you can see is dark coast, without a flashing light going you can easily end up a few km's away from where you want to be

you could allways just use that thing you strap to your arms! isnt that what its for

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snides8 said...

you could allways just use that thing you strap to your arms! isnt that what its for

We don't all have arms like yours Steve, that thing is about 150x100mm

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Carl Macdonald said...

Hi Kato,

What happened to your darth vadar helmet? That's right you wouldn't be able to see the big noah's with that on. Sounds like fun

Cheers.

I wore my DV helmet at the start then swaped with Matt to try the different light set.

Lights come from ayup

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elmo said...

snides8 said...

you could allways just use that thing you strap to your arms! isnt that what its for

We don't all have arms like yours Steve, that thing is about 150x100mm

I think Snides was refering to the navigation device that's already on your arm, not the light.

Doh