Pole Buoy Build Instructions

Pole Buoy Components

See Adrift Parts List in Supplemental Folder for more details.

  1. Aluminum Pole- 9’ length, 1.25” 6063 aluminum round tube with approx 17 lbs attached to bottom of pole to keep buoy vertical

  2. Crab Floats- To keep it floating! There are bolts above/below to keep it from moving along the pole.

  3. Bridle- 12 strand line that links the pole buoy to the rest of the drifting recorder setup

  4. Radar Reflector- so ships can see it (but not as visible on radar as we would like!), and to help us find it.

  5. GPS Mount- to hold solar GPS and strobe light

Pole Buoy Assembly

  1. Prepare the bridle:

    • There should be 3 pieces of clear abrasion resistant hose along with the 12-strand thick blue/green line in the tote

    • The bridle will have 3 loops in it: two go around the pole (1 loop below the crab floats, 1 loop above the crab floats) and one loop is in the middle to attach to the rest of the gear

    • These loops get a BIG workout– put the hose on the line at each of these loops to minimize abrasion of the line during deployment

  2. Put lower loop of bridle onto the pole

  3. Add crab floats:

    • Put 2 orange crab floats onto the pole so that the flat ends of the crab floats butt up against each other

    • There are bolts that go through the pole at the top and bottom of the floats to help keep them in place

    • We have also been putting a hose clamp between the buoys & the bolts, and then wrapping this in electrical tape

  4. Radar reflector and GPS mount:

    • At the top are the radar reflector and the GPS mount

    • The radar reflector goes over the pole, and then the GPS mount is inserted into the top of the pole

    • A bolt (currently attached to the GPS mount) holds both in place. A bolt (currently attached to the GPS mount) holds both in place.

    • The pole, reflectors, and GPS mounts are labeled A, B, C to identify sets that fit well together previously

  5. Strobe Light- Prior to deployment, add batteries & zip tie the strobe onto the GPS mount

  6. Add reflector tape to the pole below the radar reflector