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I periodically go single handed boating, and experimented fairly successfully with mounting a camera on the bow rail looking forward to assist with navigating channels. The camera is a wifi enabled olympus tg3, I attached a circular polarizer and set it fairly wide angle, and enabled the wifi to beam the video to my ipad which was attached at the helm. It worked fairly well, but the circular polarizer did depend on the sun angle somewhat to get good water penetration to see the channel rather than just glare. Also, the wifi signal was pretty reliable, but not perfect, with occasional dropouts. The zoom can be adjusted via the ipad wifi app, although I usually had it wide open. The camera is waterproof, and I just ran it on battery to keep it waterproof so I can't run it full time, but runs for an hour or so with wifi enabled which is plenty for most channel navigation I was doing. Has anyone tried this or seen commercial products which do this?

I very much like your idea both for navigation & Photo journaling trips. I started to do something similar with weatherproof ip cameras - which aren't as versatile as your cam but offer low light capability. I haven't got my gear out the box yet
Have been under the weather for weeks. & trying to gear up for FL Keys trip.

Keep us posted on gear & challenges. There may not be a lot of experience, but I'm sure there's a lot of interest

This appeals the the geek in me, but then I have to say why? Why not look around the cabin top?

A gopro would work with the wifi app and have a wide view.

Russ, I can't see much at all over the bow in relation to shallow water to avoid from standing at the helm, am I missing some Mac technique? If I am not single handed I like a person up front spotting, but without a spotter I feel pretty blind from the helm picking my way in real shallow channels. Note that this technique was precipitated from navigating unmarked tidal channels in Alaska alone.
I did not buy the camera or iPad for this setup, I already had them and just rigged it up for an evaluation. I did buy the circular polarizer but that was only about $7 and I can use it for a variety of things. I'll be in the keys the first part of January and if anyone is interested I can try and take a video of the display and share. I highly recommend the Olympus tg series in general for a tough waterproof camera, it is actually outstanding in low light for a point and shoot camera, and can be used snorkeling and shallow scuba diving, as well as having a basic iOS app for remote viewfinder and capability for a screw in circular polarizer filter. If I could remotely rotate the circular polarizer that would be ideal, but it still works decent if one is not turning frequently.
The advantage the tg has over the GoPro are zoom, screw in lens filters, viewfinder, and low light capability, the GoPro advantages are small and light weight.

If it works for you, that's great. It is true that seated, visibility is low over the bow. In tight quarters (entering the marina) I stand. Even with a dodger, visibility hasn't been an issue. The genny does get in the way sailing.
Anything that makes navigation safe is a good idea.

Does the depth sounder help any with stuff like this? (All my time is in deep water so I am just asking - is it something that would be of any help?)

I don't have much shallow water experience.

Depth finder is critical, but it doesn't really help picking a channel. If a depth finder were facing forward and had a scan across a wide area it would be ideal, but nothing yet.

Flightfollowing wrote:Depth finder is critical, but it doesn't really help picking a channel. If a depth finder were facing forward and had a scan across a wide area it would be ideal, but nothing yet.

They make fwd looking sonar now.

http://sites.garmin.com/en-US/panoptix/

What about a GPS Chartplotter? Zoom in tight. I love using it in tight places or returning to an anchorage at night by following the bread crumbs back.

--Russ

Very cool forward looking and scanning sonar, anyone have one? My big question about these is the shallowest depth they work with, I have a raymarine chirp a78 chart plotter sonar and its limit is 2.4ft, which is larger than my draft, so as long as it is registering a number (always 2.4 or deeper) I won't run aground with boards up, but once it shallows out with a blank reading, I know I'm close to touching bottom. Which is where forward through the water visibility comes in and why I tested out the polarized lens camera on the bow rail aiming into the water.
I'm starting to think most Mac sailors don't have to deal with this issue, either they sail in reliably deep water, or they always have crew to spot from the bow, or they are smart enough not to try and navigate really shallow unmarked channels?

Russ, as mentioned in our simultaneous posts, I have a good modern chart plotter sonar display, but that doesn't help quite enough mounted on the transom of 26 foot boat looking below the engine for navigating channels, but Grady's new garmin looks like it would if it can register under 2 feet. My a78 chart plotter doesn't seem to have quite the Gps accuracy one would need to perfectly retrace a route, it is regularly off by 10-15 feet laterally, and it also would not help in the first place to make the initial route through, but it does help immensely. Your photo was instructive, as it shows good forward viewing for surface features, but zero help for subsurface features off the bow due to glare from the low angle of the sun.

Flightfollowing wrote:....I'm starting to think most Mac sailors don't have to deal with this issue, either they sail in reliably deep water, or they always have crew to spot from the bow, or they are smart enough not to try and navigate really shallow unmarked channels?

I think we have all dealt with it , but in some places you can't see a foot into the water. Western lakes usually have good visibility along with the Keys and the Bahamas but lots and lots of other places including a lot of Florida you can't see the bottom if it is 2 feet down.

I watch the depth finder but as you said the Mac can go in skinnier water than it can read. Usually my warning is the rudder kicks, which I think is about 3+ feet. If that happens I'm quickly trying to figure out an option that doesn't take me forward anymore.

Single handing I'm more cautious vs. when I could be up on the bow giving hand signals to Ruth,

Sumner

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1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

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Sumner, very good point about water visibility. Apparently Grady led me to discover forward looking sonar (FLS) which is apparently a burgeoning technology and might solve this issue. Some exist now, such as very expensive units, but some economical ones are also just getting introduced. Some are geared towards fishing and some to channels and safety. I will have to wait a bit till raymarine introduces one.

In water that shallow I think perhaps it might be okay to pull up all the boards and put the daggerboard down just a few inches and go backwards so you can see what's coming??
( that I have done before )

If you totally sold on using a camera and just won't change your mind then your mounting on the bow is probably not totally required - I have an underwater camera on a boat hook for such things and it works just fine right from the cockpit here in Oceanside but the water here may be much cleaner than the water where you are. The camera I use is a Countour and its a steel bullet camera (much better than the cheapo plastic GoPro junk) and about the same price. The contour is also better because you control it from an Iphone at large distances and on the iphone I can see what it sees:


https://youtu.be/okDBdH-FAqA

I can see pretty far out in front of the boat - we use this to search for animals, sea creatures, submarines and treasure!

The Contour is GPS enabled too.

Brilliant suggestion BOAT! In fact I don't have to buy anything I could just mount my existing waterproof wifi camera below the waterline, which would avoid all the glare. Going backwards is also something I did not consider (duh) and a good option. Why do you drop the daggerboard a few inches? Just as a warning or tipoff that one is getting too shallow?