Baldwin Racing
Introduction
Are you also sick and tired of having to replace or renew your buoys during a race or after an event? Well let me give you some good news. Here is an invention that will never require you to have to replace a buoy again. Can you believe that! Well it's true. I will give you a step by step instruction on how to build yourself some buoys that will never be able to get damaged and need to be replaced. What's more, is that this buoy will only cost you round 15$ to make, can you believe that! This buoy is also designed to prevent your boat from getting stuck in it and also to prevent your boats from getting damaged from it. The buoy is also designed to handle variations of water level and or easy installation. No more accurately determining the depth of your dam. Here is the Baldwin design. Its free for all to use as long as you give it the name I have given it. They have been named as the "Baldwin Buoys". Designed and built in January of 1997, these buoys have been tested now for over a year. The buoys have been used in all our club races and are still as good as new even after been hit by various boats during the year.
STEP 1 - Parts
The parts are simple, we have the main component as seen in the first photo which is a round disc being 30 cm in diameter. 15 Of these discs are cut for each buoy. This disc could be any size you like, depending on how big you would like to make the buoy. I make our buoys 30cm in diameter. The disc is 1cm thick and a 6mm hole is made in the centre of it to slide it onto the rod later. The colour comes in various colours but I have chosen red as it is the easiest colour seen on the water. This material is not normal foam but special light weight insulated closed-cell foam. Known in South Africa as CADAC foam. It comes in sheets of normally 50cm X 2.4 meter rolls. You do get other size rolls as well. The second piece is the spacer foam which is used to allow a gap between the rings of foam. 15 of these pieces are also made. I use the pieces that are left over after cutting the rings to make the spacers. They can be any shape or size as long as they are much smaller than the main foam discs. The spacer piece is specially design in the construction of the buoy to prevent the boat from getting stuck on the buoy or penertrating the foam. I make an aluminium rod 32 cm long and thread them on both sides to enable to put a stainless steel 6mm lock nut on each side. I then make a 25mm by 25mm aluminium angled plate that is 10 cm long. I drill a 6 mm and a 5mm hole in each side to use as the bottom plate where the rod will screw through it as well as a U-bolt clamp. The U-bolt clamp is a standard off the shelf clamp. I use a 5mm U-bolt clamp as it is just the right size for me. The other end of the rod is closed off with another piece of aluminium plate to prevent the buoy from coming off the rod.
STEP 2 - Preparation
I use standard 8mm nylon ski rope to anchor the buoys in the water. I loop the rope by burning the end of the nylon and making it nice and round so that I can feed the rope into the centre of the nylon rope itself. This enables you to make a very strong and neat loop to tie the weight to the rope and to the anchor itself.
STEP 3 - Self-adusting mechanism
This design is nothing new but is incorporated into the design of the buoy as it is essential that the buoy stays right up. To ensure this, it needs to have a steady force pulling it down into the water. This design also enables you not to worry too much about the depth of the water. If the water is 2 meters deep then make the rope 3 meters long. I use an aluminium roller that is a standard item used by all yachtsman. As seen in the picture, the nylon rope is then thread through the roller to allow a free movement. It is not essential to use a roller. The nylon rope can be thread straight through the U bolt as seen in the second picture.
STEP 4 - Buoy assembly
I start from the top of the buoy. I take the aluminium rod and put one lock nut onto the one side of the rod. I then slide an aluminium plate onto the rod to act as the stopping washer. The next thing I slide on, is one of the round foam discs that have been cut. I then slide a spacer disc after that. I then repeat adding a disc and a spacer till the rod is full. This normally would take 15 discs and 15 spaces and would make the buoy 30cm high. Remember that if you want to make it higher you just need to make the rod longer and then just add more discs and spacers, as easy as that. After all the discs have been added, I then slide the angled aluminium plate over that and put the lock nut on to keep all the components together.
STEP 5 - Final assembly
The buoy is now taken and the U-bolt bolts the buoy to the roller. I then thread the nylon rope through the roller and tie the lead weight to the rope. I use a 3kg lead weight as I find it works the best for me. Lead is used just because it is small but you could use any weight. This 3 kg lead weight is just the downward force weight and not the main weight. The main weight is normally 10kg or more in weight to ensure the buoy does not move from its position. The heavier the better. Note that the small weight cannot go through the roller so the buoy cannot come loose. It does however absorb the shock when a boat hits it. The counter weight would typically come up to the buoy when it's hit by a boat. It would then drop down immediately after that and everything is back to normal. Floating in the water, it will always self center itself and stay directly above your main weight ensuring that the track is the same size at all times.
General
As you can see by the picture below the buoy allows the boat to penertrate the buoy without getting damaged, breaking the boat or getting the boat stuck. This is the way to go. Take note that if you ride a crab shooter or the like which has a double nose, it will still get stuck. I hope this was informative and please feel free to make these buoys for your club as well. If you need more info about the material send me a note and we can talk about it. I can sell you the material as well if you cannot get hold of it. Beter still I could send you a sample of the material at a small fee and you may have it in your area once you see what it is all about. The rest of the components are easy for anyone to make.
Compiled in April 1998 by Gary Baldwin
Last Updated on 29 December 1998
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