Yes Wouter, I am addicted to spi sailing now....
My current setup is an old M20 snail and a spi pole from a Tornado. The support rods a ski poles in carbon where I added fittings for the bow and the pole.
I'm trying to convince Marstrom to build a spi kit designed for the A-cat. I should be similar to the M20 but with a smaller snail that can handle up to 18 m2 of spi and a lighter spi pole and streamlined support rods between the bows and the spi pole. The halyard should be internal similar to the M20 to reduce the drag.
We are 6 A-cats in Sweden that are interested in this kit and if we can find some more sailors that I think we could convince them to make a kit!
Pictures of my current spi setup:
http://www.webbo.dyndns.org/a-cat_sailing/spi/Some technical data about the film:
The film is taken with a sony bullet cam using a wide angle lens. The video signal from the bullet cam is connected to the video overlay unit which adds the gps data. The video overlay unit has a video out which is connected to the analogue in of the dv cam. I use a 80 minutes tape which runs in LP-mode so I get 2 hours of recording.
The gps needs 5 volt, the video overlay needs 5 volts and the bullet cam needs 12 volts. I used to have a pack with 10 AA batteries but they where not reliable, it is no fun to get 2 hours of darkness after a terrific sailing trip!!!
I use a soldered battery pack with 10 AAA batteries instead which is smaller and gives me 2 hours of power. I use a small switched dc-dc converter to get 5 volts.
The video overlay unit:
http://www.blackboxcamera.com/Stv5730a/STV5730A.htm/hakan
