It seems like almost all sailors are tinkerers, inventors, closet boat designers. All of us are constantly trying to think of newer, better, faster, easier, more efficient (or more complicated), cheaper (which sometimes end up being more expensive) ways of doing things.
So what have you invented, or what would you like to see somebody invent -- related in some way to sailing, of course?
Just as a trivial example, I was thinking that for regattas that provide lunches to all the sailors on the water, it would be neat to have some kind of inexpensive, waterproof, floating container to put the individual lunches in, so lunches could be thrown to the sailors, and if it missed, no problem because it would float, and getting your lunch would turn into a man-overboard retrieval drill. (In this case the incentive would be hunger.) Maybe something made out of bubble-wrap?
And why can't somebody invent a mast flotation device that the serious sailors will accept?
Why can't somebody invent an anti-lightning device?
Why don't the wetsuit and drysuit manufacturers come up with products that allow for both men and women to eliminate without stripping? I'm sure the astronauts have this figured out somehow.
I invented the "auto-park" system to keep your boat in a parked position on the water so you can work on things -- especially useful for single-handers, but I would want it on any beach-cat. But nobody seems to be interested. That's the trouble with some inventions -- the inventor is the only one who cares about it.
I figure this is a thread that could go on forever..... 
P.S. There is already a very long thread on various ways to make storage boxes for your trailer, so if you have something on that particular topic, you can add to that one.
i am always tinkering. two of the most usefull things i made were a furling system for my prindle 16 that cost less than $100 for the whole thing installed. it works great andthe other thing is a sail timer, but not just a plain sail timer. i have a garmin gpsmap 176 that i use when i race on monohulls. it has just about everything except a countdown timer. it has the capability of displaying water temperature if receiving data from a nmea device. the timer i built outputs the remaining time and all other numbers to be displayed on the nmea temperature sentence. it has only a power switch and one button. pressing and holding the button places it in set mode. it counts up by minutes incrementing every second. after you let the button go, it waits for another press of the button to begin the countdown. the time is displayed on the gps display.
if you like that, it gets better. after the race starts it changes mode and becomes a tactical compass. it reads the heading from the gps and compares it to the heading it was at when you pressed the button (you set the starting heading each time you tack by pressing the button). it subtracts the starting heading from the current heading, does some math to determine if there is a head or lift and displays the angle in positive or negative degrees. when you mark the starting heading for the tack it samples the heading for 5 seconds and then averages the headings over the 5 seconds to take into account any quick adjustments the skipper makes to the heading at the beginning of the tack.
i built the timer/compass for about $70. it is a small microcomputer in a case that is about 3" x 2" x 3/4" with the button and power switch in the case. it could easily be smaller and have a remote button or buttons without much modification.
i figure when i buy my monohull (i'll also keep the prindle) i can mount it below with the other instruments and have a remote button in the **** area for racing.
I think of sailors as great improvisors...
[color]Take what you have at hand at a moments notice in the face of grave danger and at great personal peril to fix a problem that inexplicably pops up at the most inopportune timeā¦ without loosing position on the race course.
I'm actually interersted in making current systems better.
For instance the mast rotation system on my H17. It sucks. I don't like it at all. I'm always checking out other boats then trying to "rig" something similar, even if its not class legal. My Jib sheeting setup resembles more of a TheMightyHobie18 than a 17 sport. I'm also trying to put together some beach wheels just because I'm a college student thats not afraid of taking chances with my personal health š
I'd like to see a Hydrofoil kit that I could just buy and bolt on to my hulls and take off like those neato windriders. Alas, nobody has the time or patience to do something like that though.
Mary,
A long time ago a thread was started about asymetric daggerboards or tacking daggerboards. It still rank among the most read ones. Afterwards, there was another thread about the use of tacking daggerboards in the 505 (mono) class.
Both concepts are good and deserve being developed, but, as you probably already know, my favorite is your idea of a "speed improving chiken float" - a masthead float that would actually improve speed.
A guy who works with aerodinamics told me that it should be feasible and the improvement in safety is certainly worth the work. We won't name it after you, though, because some people could insist in calling it chicken float 
.
Cheers,
Luiz
Luiz,
Perhaps "chicken" float would be appropriate, since I grew up on a chicken farm.
Mary
No way. If having your name exchanged with "chicken" from time to time is no offense or embarassment to you, then you can choose one of the following:
"Mary's Float"
"Mary's Fast Float"
"Mary's Topmast Float"
"Mary's Power Float"
"Holy Mary"
Or invent another name you prefer. But you deserve to name it, because it was your idea - we all read about it in the magazine.
Cheers,
Luiz
1. I built a box that we put on the rear crossbar of our Nacra 6.0 to help us raise the mast. It is approximately 28" high, and when the mast is connected to the ball at the base, it gives a much better angle to start lifting the mast from.
2. I installed a temporary gin pole on the trailer between the front crossbar and the mast support. This allows for a better angle for raising the mast using the trailer winch.
3. I also built a light bar which hangs from the 6.0 rudder castings so the trailer lights can be easily removed for either trailer launching or just to prevent mechanical damage.
That's all I can think of right now.
A few years ago I kicked around the idea of a masthead float that would improve performance. Using a square top main and placing a foil on top to form a T. This would stop the air from spilling off the top and make the top more powerful. Much like the winglets found on modern aircraft.
Of course the problem is would it be class legal? Would you want that thing slicing down at you if the boat next to you capsizes?
I think for it to work a manufacturer will have to get involved a design a boat that uses it.
Mike Catley
Hi,
I Would be very interested in idea nr. 1
Do you have a picture or drawing ?
MauganH17,
If you had the time, I would like to learn more about modifications or ideas for the H17 that you have come up with. I am 'bringing one back from the dead' and will have it ready by spring, the only mods I have so far are a homemade bridle spreader made from an old H14 boom and I have not decided to set it up boomless or not, but if I use a boom I may use a TheMightyHobie18 or even a H16 style gooseneck to et the boom up a little.
If you had time for a discription that would be great!!
Thanks,
Mike
P16
H17 (in progress)
The idea should work.
It could be executed with soft material (foam, for example) to avoid injuries from accidents.
It would not be class legal, initially, but if the concept worked, people would actually insist in making it class legal, because it improves speed AND safety. Even race organizers would insist to make it mandatory. That's why it is such a good idea.
Cheers,
Luiz
Couple nice things about it, You would be able to get the same performance with a shorter mast ie. less drag and more efficient sail. Righting the boat and stepping the mast would be easier..shorter mast.
Mike
Any inventors out there know how to rig a headsail pole from a forward crossbeam? Here's the requirments:
1. Nothing concerning the pole should come aft of the forward crossbeam.
2. It's gotta be strong and stable enough to handle a Hooter and decent wind.
3. It has to be something I can make fairly cheaply, that uses readily available parts
4. The less complicated the better.
My idea was this:
Using two windsurfer-mast sections- Connect the base of each where the forward beam connects to the hull on each side. Angle the tops inward and connect them together so they form a triangle. Run control wires from the tip of each to their respective bow (this should also be able to induce pre-bend). Hang the furler below and just aft of where the tips connect.
This should give me a base with four attachment points and enough stability and strength to handle the sail while leaving the forward trampoline free of obstructions.
Any coments or entirely different approaches?
The arrangement you describe does not have anything holding it "up", so I guess you must use a Hooter, or something with halyard in luff, you can't use spinnaker that is doused, right?
I think you might also consider the angles involved. How high above bow tips is the tip of the pole (apex of triangle) going to be? Will force on bow tips be upward, or all inward?
It looks like your setup would work well.
I am curious about one thing:
By "forward crossbeam" you mean a third crossbeam in front of the main (mast) crossbeam, am I correct?
If this is the case, then your setup is better then the usual spinaker pole setup because chances are that a forward crossbeam is not designed to support the additional load in the middle.
If you don't want a forestay to keep the tip up, maybe you could use rigid bridles (carbon would be best but wood or aluminum are fine too). Just raise the tip enough to avoid that the bridles are in the same plane as the former masts and it will stay in place.
Cheers,
I suppose I should've mentioned that I plan on running a Hooter. I did mention the furling drum somewhere... a small wire stay and the halyard would run from there to somewhere up the mast.
I would want the sail to mount fairly low to keep the CE down about as much as I can. I don't know what the forces would be, but with a hooter I'd believe they are primarily inwards, similar to a jib....
Luiz-
Yes, I have forward crossbeam, not a bow foil.
Here is a picture of the factory-intended set-up.
Instead, I shackle the tack of the Jib right to the eyestrap on the forward crossbeam and use a H-16 style jib halyard "up-hual" to adjust luff tension. It keeps the CE low, was very simple to rig, and allows one line to do both jobs, creating less clutter.
I am reviving this 2-year-old thread, because I have an idea for something. Probably already exists, because that usually turns out to be the case, but I haven't heard of it.
How about a digital "level" to install on beach cats (or big multihulls, too)? An attitude detector.
Everyone who races beach cats knows that weight distribution is very important to speed. And the reason weight distribution is important is that you have to try to maintain a certain fore-and-aft attitude of the boat in the water for maximum speed, as well as a certain optimal lateral attitude (amount of heel).
Of course, I don't believe in looking at a lot of instruments when you are actually racing, but it could be a valuable training tool so you can find out what angles and attitudes work best for your particular boat in various wind conditions.
So what we need is a digital read-out "level" that will show the boat's fore-and-aft and sideways attitudes in the water. If these digital attitude read-outs can be correlated with GPS speed readings, you have one more tool to figure out exactly how to balance the boat weightdistributionwise for maximum speed.
I know that there is a safety device for big multihulls that senses the amount of heel, and if it gets beyond a certain point, sheets are automatically released. But what I am talking about is a lot more sophisticated.
What do you think?
For the benefit of novice racers, there could be an alarm that goes off when they are sitting on the back of the boat and dragging the sterns in light air and they need to move forward. Or when the bows are digging in too much in heavy air and they need to move back.
It could drive sailors crazy! It could be called BAD (Boat Attitude Detector). 
P.S. If YOU have an invention idea, please look at my original post on this thread and read through the whole thread, because maybe somebody has already thought of it, or something similar, to which you can add more ideas.
Maybe someone should look at the system with 2 thin carbon fiber "sticks" that hold up a conventional spinnaker pole on Marstrom M-20s and A-cats. This appears to be advantageous, altho I don't know why, having never seen one in person. (There is no forward crossbar here because this is a modern design).
Dave,
There is no advantage to the M20/M18 setup. The double bridle setup when flying a spi is not very nice. It tends to foil up manouvres with the spi. Best for spi sailing is the single forestay with a bridle setup. When you do this then the traditional spi pole setup with lines is easiest, cheapest and best.
Wouter
Dave,Robbie Daniels had a M20 here for some time so I got a chance to check it out. I think the only reason they used the "carbon sticks" is because everything on the boat is carbon.
2. I installed a temporary gin pole on the trailer between the front crossbar and the mast support. This allows for a better angle for raising the mast using the trailer winch.
3. I also built a light bar which hangs from the 6.0 rudder castings so the trailer lights can be easily removed for either trailer launching or just to prevent mechanical damage.
That's all I can think of right now.
I know this is a revival of a revival, but I'd love to see pics of 1 and 2. A gin-pole/A-frame/ angle-improver setup is relatively easy to work out. My problem is how to slide a 31ft mast out past the rear crossbeam and support it with it turned 90 degrees to get it onto the ball and then limit the mast turning back straight until the downhaul is clear as it's lifted with a winch/gin-pole arrangement.
Working on the non-"chicken float" chicken float. Some time in a wind tunnel sure would help. 
Here is an idea that was suggested to me by an "old Salt" but I haven't tried it .....yet. It makes some sense since I too, have the type of mast that requires a 90 degree turn.
He thought I should rivet another tang on the side of the mast (so that the pull would naturally turn the mast 90 degrees) and abandon the forestay as what I attach to the winch. I haven't done it yet because I don't want to drill more holes in the mast # 1 and # 2 I haven't figured out how I would attach a line to the tang that didn't have to be left in place while I was sailing.
For holding the mast in place at 90 degrees I just fabricated a PVC pole with a "V" on top and bottom that rests on the ground but holds the mast on its side 6 feet off the ground behind the rear beam. I use the pole to help lift the mast while my helper cranks the winch. With the 6 foot pole I can lift it high enough without having to climb onto the tramp.
Let me know if you can think of another/better way. I'm all ears.
Greg
how about someone post EASY to make, relatively inexpensive cat wheels? I bought a used set and.. well... I have spent more money on them than if I had just bought brand new ones! But it seems like 400$ is a little excessive for something that seems so simple.
That'll be the best 400bucks you ever spent. I want a combo Lifejacket-harness !
yeah, I know... but if I were to buy new ones now the total cost would be something like 700$!!!! 
my stupidity for not getting new ones to start with, but still.
How about a telescoping mast? That would certainly make set up soooo much easier! Has anyone ever tried this??
Hydraulic or Telekinetic?
With all the talk about having a float "Bob" on the top of the mast, why not an inflatable float on the top with tubing down to a CO2 cartridge or inflation device that you trigger if the boat goes over. You could deflate it after you right the boat.
Howard