In case you
haven’t noticed, I like to build things for
the boat myself. When I was a student (which only ended two years ago), I sailed Geronimo on a very low budget and
often the maths came down to food, diesel or equipment for the boat. For
sailing out on the North Sea (we are based on the Grevelingen Meer, which is a
bit more protected) I like to have a danbouy onboard. But if you look them up
in the chandleries they are always a bit pricey. So I had a go at building my
own.
If you want
to build your own Danbuoy, you need the following items:
- a telescopicboat hook (to use as the stick) (for example floow the link)
- some PU foam
- a chunk of lead or steel (as the weight)
- a day-glo yellow or orange reflective vest (you can easily get them at a petrol station on the continent, as many countries require you to have one in the car in case of a breakdown)
And for
night cruises I recommend adding this C-LIGHT LIFEJACKET LIGHT to the list.
Start with
the telescopic boat hook. Remove the hook itself and the cap at the end of it.
Then you take the PU foam and glue it to the stick. It is the best to place the
foam below the expanding part of the stick where you lock it, as that still
allows you to regulate the length and so makes it easier to store. Once you
have fixed the foam to the stick you have to find the right weight of lead so
that the stick swims upright, i.e. sticking out of the water.
There are two
ways to achieve this:
Firstly,
you can calculate it with Archimedes’ law. Or secondly, you can try it out
until it works. I have done the Archimedes law and then tried it in practice,
never been that much of a theoretician... When trying it in practice, take the
stick with the foam and throw it into the water (you might want to tie it on to
something in case you’ve got too much weight…). Now adjust the weight at the bottom until the stick swims upright.
After that you weigh the metal needed.
I
then moulded the lead to the shape of the
end of the stick. To do this, you can use a gas cooker and an old pan to melt
the lead (make sure you work somewhere well-ventilated) and then mould it in
the right shape.
Now you are
nearly done. Simply stitch the reflective vest around the PU Foam and you have
your own Danbouy.
If you want,
you can add a light on top and fix it with a screw to the stick.
I even added a swimming ring and a flag (from the rest of the vest)
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