[Rhodes22-list] Drone video of Fretless

[Michael Weisner]

Olivier,

I picked up a  DJI phantom 3 pro last May.  I have been wondering about using it on the Rhodes.  I have been practicing taking off and recovery by hand since there is no safe landing area on a Rhodes.  We saw a sailboat race photographer using a drone that he landed in a net on a powerboat. Can you elaborate on you technique?  Nice video.

Mike
s/v Wind Lass ('91)
Nissequogue River, NY

-----Original Message-----
From: Rhodes22-list [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Olivier Hecht
Sent: Sunday, July 3, 2016 3:50 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Drone video of Fretless

We had our second sail on Fretless yesterday…a perfect sailing day on the Rappahannock and we had the whole family including the dog this time…everyone seemed to enjoy it.  It was a tough start and finish to the day dealing with a broken trailer jack before we launched and a flat trailer tire when we retrieved her.  Fortunately, some improvisation with the car’s jack, wood blocking, and extra tools I had decided to bring at the last minute allowed us to still enjoy the day.

I even managed to get the spinnaker (Doyle “UPS") up during a more calm period on the water, and it was really easy to deploy and worked very well.  I think we hit ~7 mph for a little while on a reach…that was exciting!  I also managed to get her “wing-on-wing” for a few minutes while running, although that was pretty hard to sustain!

Here’s a quick video I was able to shoot from the drone (nice to have an aerial scouting vehicle on board to check weather or what’s around the next point of land, etc.)…launching and retrieving it from a moving sailboat crewed by novices was definitely exciting and a little nerve-racking, but we got it done.  The camera work is not great, either, since the video link to my phone was full of interference for some reason…possibly the VHF traffic…I had to fly and frame the shots without really being able to see what the camera was pointing at…

https://youtu.be/PyG78xToiVM

Olivier
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