Anchor lighting

[RupertW]

We use one of these https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/201928041581 fitted with an LED bulb. Hung in the foretriangle below the anchor ball. It's visible miles away and not expensive. We've also got a solar powered light on the pushpit rail but that's nothing to do with avoiding being hit; it's to make the boat easier to spot in amongst the others in an anchorage.
Cheap garden lights are simply not visible from far enough away to be reasonable substitutes for an anchor light. It's interesting to approach an anchorage from a distance on a dark night against a dark background. From a mile or so away, most anchor lights can clearly be seen, whether they be low level or masthead lights. However, you can't see the smaller solar powered lights common on boats in Greece. The closer you get, the more lights appear until you get to the last hundred metres or so and can see all the lovely deck level lights, including the strings of fairy lights popular amongst some parts of the community. This sort of experience suggest to me that a decent all round white light is needed for marking the boat in an anchorage.
Having entered crowded anchorages at night I've been appalled at the number of boats either not lit at all or lit by a couple of Asda garden lights. Given the circumstances likely to lead to boats arriving at an anchorage in the dark (long passage, hurried departure due to dragging anchor etc) I think that the least folks can do to protect themselves and others is to mark their boats properly.

Unless you have hit the boats with garden lights when still 100m away then they did the job. I'm baffled that you were able to complain about the lighting of boats that were so invisible.

 

[noelex]

We all sail for different reasons - one of mine is to get away from tech and from rules and if there is nobody to enforce them then you make your own choices. If I thought I'd get hit because my lights could only be seen half a mile away I'd do something about it, and if I was hit anyway I'd say I had my legal masthead anchor light on and also feel pretty sure they would be in the wrong insurance wise as they would be hitting a stationary clearly lit boat, colregs or no colregs.

Rupert, if I am coming into an anchorage at night and collide with your boat, both boats are likely to be damaged, so irrespective of the legal consequences we are both affected. There is also the remote risk of injury or worse, which makes the situation far more serious.

If your boat was poorly lit without lights that meet the required standard, I would think my insurance company would try and apportion some, or even the majority, of blame on your poor lighting and (depending on the circumstances) they would have good legal and moral grounds to do this. I also think that personally you would need to accept that you were at least partially to blame for the accident.

Your post suggests you would be dishonest and claim your legal masthead anchor light was on even if this was not the case. I hope I am misunderstanding.

 

[GHA]

We all sail for different reasons - one of mine is to get away from tech and from rules and if there is nobody to enforce them then you make your own choices. If I thought I'd get hit because my lights could only be seen half a mile away I'd do something about it, and if I was hit anyway I'd say I had my legal masthead anchor light on and also feel pretty sure they would be in the wrong insurance wise as they would be hitting a stationary clearly lit boat, colregs or no colregs.

Maybe get away with that in an empty anchorage with little traffic, spend any time somewhere busier with lots of cruisers in dinghies and local fishermen at all times then a cheapo garden light or masthead really doesn't cut it.

 

[greeny]

We all sail for different reasons - one of mine is to get away from tech and from rules and if there is nobody to enforce them then you make your own choices. If I thought I'd get hit because my lights could only be seen half a mile away I'd do something about it, and if I was hit anyway I'd say I had my legal masthead anchor light on and also feel pretty sure they would be in the wrong insurance wise as they would be hitting a stationary clearly lit boat, colregs or no colregs.

I'm sure that insurance would not be high up on my list of immediate concerns if I got hit by a high speed fishing boat in the middle of the night. I think the lives of my family and myself would be more important. In my opinion you do as much as possible to avoid that situation. Follow the regs, and then some more. The more visible your boat is, the less chance it will happen. Obvious really.

 

[Neeves]

And there has not been any mention of anchors yet.

Having entered too many anchorages where yachts have had inadequate, or no visible, lights I increasingly think the owners to be selfish. After a long passage you want, maybe need, as easy an arrival as possible in order that you can plan your location for the night. Aiming at an empty dark space should result in arriving in an empty dark space - not finding a tastefully dark blue yacht without lights - meaning you need a rethink.

Its simple - light your yacht so that it can be seen clearly, I really don't mind if the light cannot be seen at 2nm - that's your problem and decision - I do mind one paltry garden light hidden by an aft superstructure holding dinghy, solar panel etc.

Adequate LEDs are as cheap as chips now, they use virtually no power, if you search around you can find them such they are visible at 2nm and they can light up your whole deck - why would you not use them (even if only to make the life of your fellow yacht owners - that little bit easier).

I'd also prefer lights low down, illuminating the deck, as they are easier to spot, judge distance, differentiate from shore lights - etc.

Jonathan



Jonathan

 

[duncan99210]

I had one of these and it soon filled up with water. If I’m paying 30odd quid, I’d at least expect it to be waterproof. Also, the cable is 4.6m. So, what are these for? A 5m boat? Unless of course you have a cigarette lighter socket at the mast!

I've had the one I use for about seven years now: never a problem..... Yes the original wire was a tad short but easy enough to extend. I only paid £15 for mine but thought I'd show the type of light I use rather than scratch round on the internet to find the exact one. The one I bought was specifically sold as meeting the two mile standard with the supplied bulb, which matched my experience of it in use.

 

[Neeves]

This is what we are currently using:

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=556146409995

If you scroll down within the link you will find more detail, if you try translate - the English can be a bit odd, but its better than my Chinese!

The assembly costs about Stg8.

The connectors appear to be waterproof, not so the bulbs nor switches. But we have housed one bulb and switch.

It is a simple small solar panel, with Edison type bulbs with LED clusters inside. Each bulb has a separate cable, about 8m. The batteries are housed under the solar panel. We currently have one bulb housed in a Nescafe type jar (for lack of anything else) and it hangs in the fore triangle. I've checked - one bulb can be seen at 2nm and one bulb illuminates all the foredeck. In comparison a LED anchor light on a nearby Lagoon, masthead is much brighter and must be visible at 3-4nm.

So far the light works without loss of luminosity for 3 days of a Sydney overcast sky.

The light comes on automatically at dusk and off at dawn.

We also have the spotlight with sensor - which is housed in the roof over the cockpit. Same sort of design. We use it when we eat outdoors and for fishing, the auto sensor is meant to discourage uninvited nocturnal visitors, whether humans or cormorants.

We have had the spotlight for 12 months, without issue, and the other assembly for 3 months - again without problems - but 3 months is not very long. We bought the second assembly having been impressed by the first.

I see lots of similar devices on offer, or at least the spotlight (try Tmart), from a variety of sources at slightly increased prices. There appear to be a number, probably large number, of manufacturers of such devices in China. Our purchase route is direct with a retail outlet in China - if you speak Chinese, its not difficult.

Once we find a 'better' unit in which to house the light we will transfer (but so far the Nescafe jar is doing sterling service).

I have checked the loss of visibility, due to destruction of night vision, by sticking my head out of our forward berth hatch - you would need to stare close up intently at the light, which you cannot do from the hatch, and I can see, well, for miles. I can see this being an issue if you have had too much to drink of are visually impaired - otherwise its another marine myth without too much basis.

Jonathan

 

[noelex]

I have checked the loss of visibility, due to destruction of night vision, by sticking my head out of our forward berth hatch - you would need to stare close up intently at the light, which you cannot do from the hatch, and I can see, well, for miles. I can see this being an issue if you have had too much to drink of are visually impaired - otherwise its another marine myth without too much basis.

This type of illumination will certainly reduce your dark adaptation. In fact, almost any illumination providing it can be detected by your scotopic visual system will have some impact on your dark adaptation.

If your dark adaptation had already been reduced by other illumination such as interior lighting, the reduction may not be noticeable, or you may feel your dark adaptation is still acceptable, but it is important to realise it will be compromised compared to the best achievable dark adaptation.

Dark adaptation is not an all or nothing state. It is a gradual improvement. Full dark adaptation takes 20-30 minutes of darkness.

I think illuminating your superstructure is helpful for other boats approaching. In many situations it is probably worth sacrificing some of your own potential dark adaption to achieve this. Ideally, it better to situate the lighting where it can be seen well by approaching boats, but is not in your line of sight if you need to keep the best lookout. At least try to have this as one of the potential options.

Dark adaptation is a retinal process so shutting one eye to help preserve dark adaptation can be useful.

Ironically, eye diseases that reduce dark adaption will make the benefits of full dark adaption difficult to appreciate. Alcohol does not have much effect, but if you send me some nice single malt I am prepared to test this theory .

 

[Neeves]

I think illuminating your superstructure is helpful for other boats approaching. In many situations it is probably worth sacrificing some of your own potential dark adaption to achieve this. Ideally, it better to situate the lighting where it can be seen well by approaching boats, but is not in your line of sight if you need to keep the best lookout. At least try to have this as one of the potential options.

.

As long as you hoist the light into the foretriangle - unless you look at the stars first, or have a penthouse on your yacht the light is very unlikely to be in your line of sight

Coincidentally we do have a collection of single, Scots, malts and by definition they are all nice. Having worked in my youth in a large city Post Office parcel sorting centre prior to Xmas I would not risk such a valuable item to the post as all you will receive is a box of shattered glass, and one cork (cardboard makes an excellent filter). When you next come to Sydney, let me know.

Jonathan

 

[KellysEye]

We tied our light an arm's length up the backstay, the problem with a light on the mast is if you are in an anchorage with background lighting the one mast is very difficult to see. I am not sure about a solar one though a cloudy day and it won't work ours was battery powered.

 

[RupertW]

I'm sure that insurance would not be high up on my list of immediate concerns if I got hit by a high speed fishing boat in the middle of the night. I think the lives of my family and myself would be more important. In my opinion you do as much as possible to avoid that situation. Follow the regs, and then some more. The more visible your boat is, the less chance it will happen. Obvious really.

That's exactly my point - my garden lights in crowded or empty anchorages are very visible - not by the silly 2 mile rule but by the practical application of being able to see the boat from a restaurant half a mile away and with the dimensions absolutely visible as foredeck and cockpit are lit. I go by trying to make it easy for any boat to avoid a collision not by thinking about legalities. But if a legal minded person hit me and claimed I wasn't properly lit but would have been by my bright legal masthead light in the sky then I would happily oblige their fantasy by claiming it was lit.

 

[GHA]

That's exactly my point - my garden lights in crowded or empty anchorages are very visible - not by the silly 2 mile rule but by the practical application of being able to see the boat from a restaurant half a mile away and with the dimensions absolutely visible as foredeck and cockpit are lit.

Must be very good expensive ones, most are rubbish with just a dull glow and don't last half the night. That's why we all hate them.

 

[nortada]

Interesting debate.

For those who favour solar lights, it is often possible, with even the cheapest lights, to up the rechargeable battery’s rating, say from 700 to 2,000mw. This will extend the burn time significantly.

We have a mast head lobo light (consumption 0.1w) but agree that this isn't adequate to define your position to close traffic so we use a ribbon of solar powered diodes in the cockpit. The ribbon is so wired that it still operates if one or more of the diodes fail so is very reliable. Bright enough to read by on even the darkest night.

 

[RupertW]

Must be very good expensive ones, most are rubbish with just a dull glow and don't last half the night. That's why we all hate them.

People keep saying that without it being true. Every garden light I've had on a boat has lasted all night - probably because they are almost always in their first few dozen cycles ( I isolate the batteries between trips) but it is true that I tried a few before buying a dozen large ones with real glass lenses and a 5 inch square solar panel. Still cheap.

 

[Neeves]

I think Nortada makes a good point - upgrade the batteries. The other factor is obviously lack of sunlight and coupled with a poor battery there is every chance a garden light (say from Aldi) is not going to cut the mustard (I really don't believe Aldi expect their lights to work in Scotland with the few hours of (half) daylight over a long winter's night - get real!

LEDs are now a commodity, they are cheap as chips. The mouldings for garden lights are simple, crude and adequate (though the globes do deteriorate). The solar panels seem standard, though our panel on our new festoon is generously sized, and the 'electronics' crude and simple - the only place to make savings for a supplier is the battery. When new the batteries last but the standard ones do not have longevity.

I had wondered about hanging one (garden type) over the other so that the light of the top one, or the lack of light of the top one, dictated when the lower one came on automatically - but discarded this idea when we bought our new assembly.

I roundly condemn those who use garden light inappropriately located and/or garden lights that are simply inadequate (not bright enough, don't last long enough) but I cannot condemn garden lights (or domestic solar light assemblies) because having researched - it is possible to find a sensible series of solutions - that are a fraction of the cost of a new LED masthead cluster - and to my mind - if suitably located - are better than a masthead light (whether LED or incandescent).

GHA had a thread on building his own LED cluster - given the huge range of designs coming out of China this seemed a great intellectual exercise - but unnecessary (bit like inventing/developing a new anchor ). The key seems to be upgrade the supplied batteries (which GHA would need to do anyway), use a bigger solar source (they are also commodities) and locate sensibly.

The idea that locating in the foretriangle somehow negatively impacted night vision seems to have been hit on the head. I strongly favour lights that illuminate the foredeck as this is useful for an approaching yacht, they know how boats are lying and how big is the vessel under the light. I do prefer anchor lights to be seen at 2nm - as some of our anchorages are small and if you see 3 lights when approaching from offshore you know not to process but go somewhere else - saving half an hour at the end of a passage.

I think there is a better solution to our coffee jar housing (especially as we had to beg the jar as we reject instant). But I have not found it yet - the coffee jar works surprisingly well even if it looks a bit tacky.

Jonathan

 

[noelex]

It is worth thinking about what we are trying to achieve with anchor lights. The priorities could be summed up in rough order of importance as:

1. Visibility. The most important factor is to make yourself visible to other vessels that may be coming into the anchorage. It is worth appreciating that they likely to be approaching from your rear with possibly bright shore lights in front of your vessel. They may to be distracted trying to monitor their position, looking at the chart plotter and getting their anchor ready etc. If the weather is bad your lights will need to be bright to overcome these handicaps.
2. Legal conformity. In the event of a collision it is important to be able easily establish your lights conform to the required standard to avoid liability.
3. Dark adaptation. If the wind picks up at night it helpful to be able to visually check your position and the position of other boats.
4. Power consumption. LED lights don't consume much power, but as they will be on many hours each night it is helpful to minimise the consumption as much as possible consistent with the above aims.

There are many ways to achieve the above goals. I think for most boats an approved marine masthead anchor light combined with some lower decks lights is a good combination to consider.

The masthead light removes any question mark over the legality of the lights. It is also a very good option for preserving dark adaptation as almost no light is visible from the helm. The lower lights can be solar, but in an ideal world would be powered from the main house bank and situated towards the stern. Powering them from the house bank means they can be bright and there is no question they will maintain that brightness. It also means if you want maximum dark adaptation they can be quickly and easily turned off from the main switchboard. This can be important if, for example, your boat starts dragging. For a quick visual check if you wake up in the night situating the lights near the rear means you can maintain reasonable dark adaptation when looking forward, which is usually the area of most interest.

 

[Neeves]

The foretriangle is legally accepted as a location for an anchor light, though as your stern will 'face' any approaching traffic I never understood why a light off the topping lift or backstay is, also, not accepted. If you use the foretriangle then unless your yacht does not move it will be visible to anyone approaching from seaward and the illumination cast on the deck will be obvious when they are within 500m (the light itself have been seen at 2nm). As long as you do not stare at the light your forward vision will only be marginally impaired. Most people in fear of dragging are more liable to depend on an anchor alarm, than rely on waking up bleary eyed at 2am. Those of us with reliable anchors will have dispensed with anchor alarms in favour of the decent anchor If you cannot see a yacht dragging down on you in an anchorage - you need better optical aids - as they will be drifting, usually 'more' broadside on than is natural (and not where they were when originally noted). To have an array of separate LEDs is going to up the power consumption - and most of us probably focus at power conservation and want one light to suit all eventuality - throwing money at a problem seldom comes up with the best answer.

Jonathan

 

[jordanbasset]

We always have our mast anchor light on (LED) but also bought one similar to below link for us at deck height. It has lasted a few years (also had it on our previous boat) not cheap but very bright and easily distinguishable at water level
https://www.gosolar.gr/en/solar-garden-light-6-led-white-steady-on.html?sort=p.model&order=ASC

 

[Neeves]

Jordan,

Certainly looks much smarter than our Nescafe jar.

Jonathan

 

[GrahamM376]

Must be very good expensive ones, most are rubbish with just a dull glow and don't last half the night. That's why we all hate them.

Agreed. As he states he's quite happy to lie (post #31) I wonder if he's telling porkies about how bright his garden lights are.