HOTD: Boat Mic Cord Control

A quick ode to 3D printing.

Like many boats, ours has a radio. In ours, the radio is mounted up to the right of the pilot’s head, and the boat’s skipping through the water can work the cord into a frenzy.

It’s very distracting.

I figured that pinning the cord back towards the window would both damp it and move it away, while leaving it perfectly usable. The obvious thing would be to use a stick-on zip tie mount, but I’ve not had good luck with them staying put.

But we also have a track used for hanging blinds that we don’t use. One of the blind hangers is shown on the left below. A little 3D modeling – my first attempt at doing anything with OpenSCAD – produced the clip on the right, which fits the track and provides a slot for a zip tie.

And here it is in place:

I haven’t yet had a chance to try it on the water, but I’m optimistic. And I love the ability to create these one-off, very custom solutions.