Securing Laptop at Nav Station

[seattle sailor]

Hello and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all!

I am looking for an easy way to secure our laptop to our Nav Station; something that allows for easy removal. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

[David M]

Ram makes mounts for all kinds of electronics...including laptop mounts.

http://www.ram-mount.com/Products/LaptopMounts/tabid/1510/Default.aspx

[Therapy]

Velcro.

[Euro Cruiser]

Piece of string.

For each of our laptops, we encircle the joint between the laptop's display and its keyboard with a tight-ish double-loop of whipping twine, which then remains with the laptop. A brass screweye is at the back corner of the chart table (well past the 'splash zone') and with a short piece of small stuff laced thru the eye. When we bring out a laptop, the small stuff is secured to the loop. The laptop can only move a few inches in the roughest weather.

After a couple of ocean crossings and multiple runs across Biscay, the Med and the Caribbean each, I've come to believe the biggest threat to laptops on our boat is a drippy watchstander with salty fingers who comes below to check email or look at the electronic chart. (Well, and also a cup of coffee on the chart table). Mea culpa on all counts...

Jack

[cdennyb]

that's what I did but I used a piece of 'cave line' from one of my diving spools! Great minds think alike. I also took a piece of sandich wrap, clear clingy, like saran wrap only a bit bigger and just a bit thinker. It's stretched semi-tight across the keyboard and it keeps any water drops from getting between the keys, the display is upright anyway so it's easy to take a tissue and wipe any drops off it.

just a thought.

[AnsleyS]

Hey Seattle,

I have placed two cup hooks in the bulkhead behind the nav station and then made a small diameter bungie cord that hooks on one, goes across the hinge area of the laptop and hooks to the other. There is a block that sits behind the laptop, on the nav station top, that keeps the base of the laptop away from the bulkhead a bit so that the screen angle is right. The laptop can not move at all.

Cheers

Ansley Sawyer
SV Pacem

[seattle sailor]

Thanks everyone, just what I was looking for: a practical, cheap solution!!

BTW, any ideas how to make a laptop in the cockpit waterproof and still readable? We would like to have one in the cockpit,using as a chartplotter as down below. I have looked at waterproof LCD monitors to post on the bulkhead in the cockpit, but as someone said recently, they are very $$$ and I cannot get a good answer on how watertight they really are.