Mast mounted camera?

[Maren]

From time to time I’ll see a photo of the deck of a boat taken from the mast. And I am often struck by how useful something like that might be in parking a large vessel or how of a short handed crew it might be of use.

I am certain there are other uses, too. Video surveillance comes to mind. And if it were stabilized, moveable and protected you could see ships a greater distance. I personally think this is of limited use as this is what radar does fairly well but it may be a nice adjunct. And I suppose the paranoid might also think this would give them a degree of protection versus pirates, which, I guess, could be true if you wanted to watch the monitor 24/7.

Anyway, I am wondering if this has already been done and I would appreciate input.