Posted on 09/26/2015 2:00:56 PM PDT by Travis McGee
Last June, while sailing from Florida to North Carolina, I was able to realize and 20+ year dream and go dive-planing with dolphins in the open Atlantic ocean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXwNLaeNOXQ&feature=youtu.be
Spooky waters!
As a kid I went fishing there having lived at Langley and we played in those murky waters.
Awesome video, Travis. Welcome back.
Were there dolphins? I only saw a gorgeous young mermaid!
What a hoot!
Looks like fun, and you were missed.
Whom I presume is Mrs Travis, so careful there!
I'm thinking you could make a mold and produce them from tough plastic for real cheap.
That thing’s pretty cool... seems to work pretty well at sailboat speeds. Now, if you can put a GoPro mount on it...
Looks like fun!
Plastic molds, even from my guy which is a real low cost, starts around $2,500 and probably $5,000. I asked. Matt said is was not worth it since plywood works so well, and it does.
Plywood also has the nice ability to be user customizable. Hands too small, make the holes closer. Board too small, make a new one larger. Heck, Matt stood at the stern and made a nice custom job in just a few hours. He even used some epoxy ( I *think* is was epoxy), and painted it orange. Nice job, too! Real professional outcome.
You could also use the same material surfboards are made of (epoxy and fabric covered foam) which would have better floatation than plywood (if you needed to use it to stay afloat) while still having similar diving capabilities, I’m guessing.
Hell yeah ..... well done, thanks for sharing.
You were wise at an early age.
Quite a sea anchor. You have to stop the boat to pull it back in.
I believe that. Thanks to the go-pro filming the function of what you designed, with the cut-away in the front and the grips near the pivot point, it all makes sense to me, although I'm trying to visualize using one as a sea anchor, and wondering how it would be rigged best. If just the one simple tow line, that would be great. No surface float (maybe? maybe not?) and of course no trip line...?
I worked as a fisherman for a long time, about half of which was bottom fish and shrimp trawling, so I know trawl doors, and understand pretty well what the relationship is between towing point attachment and the load side, or backside attachments, having used a variety of doors and fishing gear, including the simple Gulf style, low aspect wooden door with four chains rigged together at a deliberately aimed for point. Its kind-of hard to explain, but you may understand it a little.
Fishing Albacore tuna on the West Coast I became acquainted with small diving planes used occasionally in the troll fishery, also. I don't know if you've ever seen those, but I do think they've been increasing in popularity, here in the last 20 years or so. Before then, I'd never much seen them, and most guys abhorred the things...
The Canadians would use diving planes quite a lot. They'd tell me they caught most of their fish on the planes, although I recall one year out-fishing them using nothing but conventional surface jigs.
But all of that is a little different than what you made and used...
Anyway, even much smaller planes than what you are using are difficult, if not impossible to pull to the surface when traveling at 5 knots or so...and I know that from direct experience.
The size of board you have there looks like it would be impossible to pull up at anything more than less than knot, maybe only half or a quarter knot...
Aah... if one can keep it down in the very foul, high wind/high seas type of weather which one would desire a to use sea anchor, then that would really be something.
I've blown through a couple of 'chutes in the past (while offshore, fishing albacore) having them fail right about when we really needed them.
What a pain. I didn't like having to retrieve them and the long nylon line and all that chain to hank on another old parachute, right when the weather was at its worst. And then there be the trip-line, and float and float line to deal with too. What a hassle.
The way those trolling planes are designed (most of them are Japanese sourced, I think), they don't pop up until a fish is hooked.
I see how what you have can be tilted, because the towing point is near to the pivot, and the cut-away slot would allow the line to reverse angle of attack. Perfect...close enough anyway.
I think you have something there.
What's a good speed? Dead slow, a couple of knots? Maybe a little more? Not more than a few, I take it, but please feel free to correct me.
One question;
Is the hand-hold (pivot point) set back from the towing pivot point, like an inch or two, or is it more like dead even across? I looked again and the hand-hold seemed just a little back. The thumb-hole separation kinda' makes it too, forcing a human hand to be spread enough to have tilting sort of leverage.
I would have never thought of the thumb hole. Excellent!
Don't feel obligated to tell any secrets openly though.
That was amazing!
TG Bkmrk
Very, very cool Matt!
Thanks for the ping.
The plywood is perfect in that it isn’t so buoyant as to not be submersible. Anything like a surfboard would be harder to get under.
Nice to have you here again Trav.
Beautiful. What a cool and useful device.
Dolphins are really a gift to mankind. What a majestic animal.
I am so glad you’re back. I was afraid all 4 of your novels would come true before you returned!
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