Sailing across the world!

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EirikNereng

Member
While making an amazing movie, hopefully... The thing is, me and some friends are planning to buy a small sailboat (around 28 foot) and set sail to several countries ranging from Italy to Thailand. The plan is to bring my camera equipment and make a beautiful documentary. Thats the dream, but I see several challenges. Has anyone here been on such a long trip and got some tip on whats important to remember? Any tip for shooting from and on a sailboat?

I really want to buy a jib, placing it on deck and get some high-angle shots of the sailboat sailing into the sunrise. Any ideas on how I can shoot it without making the viewers seasick? We dont got the money to buy a super-expensive stabiliser.

Thanks!
 
Watch Polanski's "Knife in the water" for some super cool camera angle son a small boat.

Nobody watches "beautiful documentaries" - it's the spirit, stories or what-not behind the images that count.
 
Thanks for the tip! Of course there will be a story involved :) Nonetheless, I want the movie to look as pretty as possible. And in the worst case scenario, if no channels want to air it, it still will be a cool thing to have for later years.

Is there any kind of equipment/accessory you would recommend? I got an Af100, a mattebox, a follow focus and a sturdy tripod.
 
I've had success doing timelapse from the top of the mast before, I used a superclamp with ball adapter to attach it to the radar platform at the top, looked great. Pointing straight down, uwa lens on a 7d. The af100 is obviously much bigger and so would probably not work as well, not to mention the safety aspects. It's probably worth investing in a smaller camera (gh2 would be ideal) if you haven't got one already to enable you to do some really interesting shots. I was also shooting on a 54' yacht, which makes a rather large difference hah. Such a big camera may be a hindrance on a 28 footer? Nothing you can do but test it out.
 
Bigger boat, waterproof housing, water tight cases, GoPro HD cameras, microphones not affected by moisture, extra hard drive storage to offload footage, ND grad filters, polarizer, slickers, microfiber cloths, extra batteries, charging solution.
 
First, I want to answer your question, but you don't say what kind of sailing experience or knowledge you have, which is a concern. To take on a voyage like that, you need to really understand what's involved in a long passage in a small boat, and you need to know how to choose and fit out a really sound, seaworthy boat (what kind of hull design you want, what shape the rig is in, etc). If you already have that knowledge, then you're already well aware that you need to ignore everyone telling you to get a bigger boat.

Second, you really have to watch Yves Gelinas' beautiful film Jean du Sud Around the World. He used a 16mm kite camera to shoot some lovely views -- until it got dunked. With a modern lightweight high-def camera in a waterproof housing, this should be pretty easy to handle (Jean du Sud was 30'). (BTW Gelinas invented the Cape Horn windvane, which I also heartily recommend, having put 7,300 miles on mine.)

I'd be concerned that an AF100 might be too much to handle easily on board -- you're going to be dealing with a lot of movement in a small space, and I would think you would be doing a lot of hand-holding. Given how good smaller cameras are getting, you might think of something like a GH2 or NEX7 in a waterproof housing, or even a GoPro. Any time the camera is above decks, be ready for it getting splashed with salt water -- keeping it in the housing will be best. Stick it on the end of a fishing pole to get the wide-angle shots. In general you're going to want wide lenses on board. Certainly you will want a camera you can take snorkelling with you.

At most you're going to want very small support systems, like a mini-tripod strapped to a stanchion. OTOH, if you can rig a small stabilizer or some other kind of gimbal rig, say to a boom gallows or stern pulpit, that would be cool for showing the boat's heel.

Of course you will be (should be!) spending a lot of time at anchor and visiting beautiful places, so the AF100 could serve you well there... even so, make sure you have a backpackable setup, since renting cars and trucks everywhere you go -- even when possible -- will deplete the budget fast.

Sound is an issue... you'll want to rig a mic so that it can sit outside getting salt spray all the time, while still getting sound. You'll probably want to experiment with that. Under the dodger could work, I guess.

Hope this helps, and happy sailing!

Atticus Lake
10,000 blue-water miles, 7,300 as master
 
I've been working on an online learn to sail course since september at work.

While filming I used my t2i as well as my office's sony hxr-mc50u

We got some great shots, but it was some of the hardest filming I've done, and the footage from the sony slays my t2i footage.

You're going to want small camcorders with built in ND and some form of Image stabilization.

We've run into a decent amount of problems in post due to my shaky DSLR footage and over all lack of stabilization on the boats.

We also used gopro's and while we really dig them, I love them, they're hard to use right in that context.

Onboard a boat, it's impossible, even with the backpacks, to see what youre recording with them, You kind of just have to set and forget and hope youre getting the right shot with them

We've gotten some gold off of them, but also a ton of grarbage/ruined shots.



 
Thank you for some great advice! Some of the tips here are really good, and we've decided to bring a macbook along with several terrabytes of harddisk-space. 2 GoPros will also be bought.

Several of you are concerned about the size of the boat, perhaps with good reason. Sailboats can be pretty expensive, and we cannot afford anything than maximum 31 foot. I'm confident that it is enough for this trip.

The image of a quality camcorder (The AF, not the GoPro), mounted on top of a jib, shooting a high-angle shot of the boat with the sunrise in background is burned into my brain. I really need to capture that shot.
 
Were going to bring a rechargable battery. It will be charged everytime we dock and contains enough power to fuel the battery. As a backup and suppliment, I'm considering to buy a foldable solar panel. I'm however open for alternatives!
 
EirikNereng said:
Were going to bring a rechargable battery. It will be charged everytime we dock and contains enough power to fuel the battery.
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Sorry this seems to be wandering a little off-topic, but... Do you mean in addition to your boat's normal electrical system?

Because if not, and if you don't mind my suggestion, I would say you really need to read up on outfitting a cruising boat -- particularly with respect to sizing your electrical needs (radios, navigation lights, cabin lights, GPS, instruments, laptop if used for navigation, etc) and designing an electrical storage and charging solution which will fit. Of course, add in charging for camera batteries, but this will likely be a small part of the whole picture. A 28' boat set up for serious passage-making will normally carry a couple of large, solid solar panels, and likely a wind generator too.
 
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I was working on some alternative energy projects a few months back, trying to harness the sun's energy. In my research I came across a technology called the 'Stirling Engine'. It is a highly efficient generator that works by creating temperature differentials to drive a piston. The Stirling engine is an amazing bit of technology but it does not scale up well and we were trying to power a house. But I recall from my research that they are commercially available for boats. I am not sure of the price but if it compares well to solar it is basically free energy and works under much wider conditions. I could be wrong but knowing the theory of how they work I suspect the boat versions would use the temperature differential between ocean and the air to power the engine so it should be perfectly suited to boating. It will probably turn out to be prohibitively expensive but worth checking out.
 
Thats sound awesome, mr Egg. I will check it out!

@Atticus; Its in addition to the boat's electrisity. The whole project is still in the planning stadium. We know nothing about sailing, so we will study hard and learn a lot the next months. What is life if you cant jump into something completely new and refreshing? :Drogar-Smoke(DBG):
 
EirikNereng said:
Thats sound awesome, mr Egg. I will check it out!

@Atticus; Its in addition to the boat's electrisity. The whole project is still in the planning stadium. We know nothing about sailing, so we will study hard and learn a lot the next months. What is life if you cant jump into something completely new and refreshing? :Drogar-Smoke(DBG):
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You don't know how to sail?!
 
EirikNereng said:
While making an amazing movie, hopefully... The thing is, me and some friends are planning to buy a small sailboat
Click to expand...

Hey EirikNereng, Sounds like an awesome adventure. Do you or others have sailing experience? I would suggest a mix of GoPro HD cameras for wide extreme shots and then sealed GH2 like cameras for more of the beauty shots. Definitely consider solar just encase you're not able to always get to a port in time to charge main power for cameras etc. You should consider also having internet if possible via mobile Satellite Internet Service, quite possibly live reports to build up interest on the internet as it's being done. Either way, sounds like lots of fun, and a great experience with your friends too. Keep us updated.

Pappas
http://pappasarts.wordpress.com/
 
PappasArts said:
You should consider also having internet if possible via mobile Satellite Internet Service.
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That is something we really want to do. We do own some websites that generates a couple million of views each month, so it would be a great combo. Do you have any experience using internet in remote places? Is it possible to upload images/videoes at sea? What services are available?
 
You don't know how to sail? I would definitely consider an experienced crewman high on the agenda. The sea is dangerous, at least one experienced crew member would be advisable. The mediterranean is one thing but if you find yourself blown out into the indian ocean that's another thing entirely. You may be fine while your luck holds out but if you lose sight of the shore and run into bad weather on a small boat, that could be the last we hear of you. Also be wary of the considerable danger of piracy up and down the african coast, and to a lesser extent in the persian gulf and parts of south east asia.

Have you considered hiring a boat complete with a captain that you can crew. Adventure holiday brokers may offer packages of this nature, the package may even include the training before you go. In the depressed economy I'm sure there are a lot of boats that are looking for work. Could come in much cheaper than outfitting yourself and they won't forget anything important. Just food for thought. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
 
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