Anchor lights

[Refueler]

May I suggest that you purchase a "garden light" that recharges during the day through a solar panel on top and shows a LED light when dark. Mine is kept on the cabin roof and lasts all night. Cheap as chips too, so easy to replace, although mine is 3 years old and is almost permanent, for 12 months of the year on my mooring. ...........I know not necessarily anchor but helps anyone coming up river at night.

I have a stack of them that used to ring my private boat channel .... I put one on my boat - the ground spike fits winch handle slot and also my foredeck windlass handle slot ...

Handy when going back to boat - the one on foredeck windlass shows up very well ...

 

[noelex]

Additional lighting when at anchor is worthwhile. It is not only permitted, it is encouraged by the colregs. Remember the legal requirements are only a minimum standard.

However, please make sure that in addition to the garden lights that you have one certified light meeting the legal requirement for visibility. When entering an anchorage in the dark there are too many boats with inadequate, dim lights that make life more difficult.

 

[john_morris_uk]

I was not the one to suggest a flashing light or anything else ... if you read my post - I am against them and anything else thrown up by some.

I just made a comment at end of post that suggested people may stay away from it because its 'strange' !

I wasn’t suggesting you did. I was reinforcing the point you made!

 

[Refueler]

I wasn’t suggesting you did. I was reinforcing the point you made!

Thats problem with 'forum speak' ... I cannot see your face / read your mind / hear the inflexion ...

Aplogies.

 

[Refueler]

Additional lighting when at anchor is worthwhile. It is not only permitted, it is encouraged by the colregs. Remember the legal requirements are only a minimum standard.

However, please make sure that in addition to the garden lights that you have one certified light meeting the legal requirement for visibility. When entering an anchorage in the dark there are too many boats with inadequate, dim lights that make life more difficult.

Many of those 'garden lights' as all rounders put out more light than the 'legal' light ...

 

[Refueler]

As far as I am aware yes as it is an all round white round white light hung in the forepart of the rigging

In fact the old 'Hurricane lamp' was defacto for many years ...

I even sailed on ships that still carried 'oil nav' lights in the Bosuns store as emergency backup.

 

[rogerthebodger]

When entering an anchorage in the dark there are too many boats with inadequate, dim lights that make life more difficult.

That is one of the reasons I went for cool white in my anchor light as it is much brighter than the original incandescent

 

[billyfish]

I built my a anchor light with a glass frazel lense about 4" round and got a LED from bedazzled which has a daylight switch. When I get to the boat I will post a picture as I'm quite proud of it . It's very bright. Had it about 4 years works very well lights the whole deck.

 

[noelex]

Many of those 'garden lights' as all rounders put out more light than the 'legal' light ...

This is true sometimes, but not often in my experience.

There are other technical considerations. The most often seen (or not seen ) fault is the brightness failing to meet the minimum requirement when the batteries are low, or the light ( or lights) not having 360° visibility (or close to this).

There are other less important considerations that should still be given some thought. Is the vertical distribution acceptable (so if the yacht heels the brightness is adequate)? Is the colour temperature acceptable (so observers with a colour defect can still see the light and identify it as white)?

If you are confident the light meets these requirements I have no problem with your choice, but you still need to keep in mind that in the event of another boat running into you then you may have to legally prove that your lighting met the required standard. This is not easy if only using garden lights. It could be a serious issue in cases where there is injury or death.

There is a lot to be said for installing a legal, certified light. You then can, and should in my view, install additional lights.

 

[Refueler]

This is true sometimes, but not often in my experience.

There are other technical considerations. The most often seen (or not seen ) fault is the brightness failing to meet the minimum requirement when the batteries are low, or the light ( or lights) not having 360° visibility (or close to this).

There are other less important considerations that should still be given some thought. Is the vertical distribution acceptable (so if the yacht heels the brightness is adequate)? Is the colour temperature acceptable (so observers with a colour defect can still see the light and identify it as white)?

If you are confident the light meets these requirements I have no problem with your choice, but you still need to keep in mind that in the event of another boat running into you then you may have to legally prove that your lighting met the required standard. This is not easy if only using garden lights. It could be a serious issue in cases where there is injury or death.

There is a lot to be said for installing a legal, certified light. You then can, and should in my view, install additional lights.

I don't see anyone - including myself saying NOT to fit legal lights.

What has become a topic here is use of ADDITIONAL lights ....

 

[noelex]

I don't see anyone - including myself saying NOT to fit legal lights.

.

Unfortunately, this is not mirrored in the anchorages of the world. It is not unusual to see boats with just garden lights. Given the low consumption of LEDs, the ready availability of certified lights and the only moderately unreasonable prices charged by the manufacturers, this is a shame.

 

[oldbloke]

I absolutely understand the importance of nice bright navigation lights and have no desire at all to be run down and sunk. However, a couple of weeks ago we were anchored up by the saltstone in the Salcombe estuary (ria sounds too pretentious) and the masthead light of the boat behind was so bright and transfixing in the otherwise dark anchorage that it quite spoilt the evening

 

[pmagowan]

If I saw a strobe light I would be worried about a lost diver or someone in distress and may explore to find out.

 

[rogerthebodger]

There used to be a life jacket light baed on a strobe light.

I have a nuver of these and oter strobe light for use in destrass situations.

All these strobes are white so should not be confused with a fasy moving hover craft

 

[billyfish]

If I had the money , and I looked into it, I would get a light aircraft strobe top of the mast.

 

[Boathook]

Quite a few years ago I entered Cawsand (Plymouth) in the dark and was expecting to see boats at anchor as it was mid June. From a distance we couldn't see any anchor lights, only street lights. As we got further in and getting ready to anchor we could still only see street lights and a few stars.
As we got right in and about to anchor, we started to see the shadow of boats that had blended in with the rocky background. The stars then turned out to be anchor lights.
Whilst a white masthead light might be good in an anchorage with no other lights, these ones got lost.
There was only 2 of us on board, quite a long passage and so getting tired. Trying to keep an eye on crew getting the anchor ready, looking at depth sounder, lights 15m up looking like stars was nearly a recipe for disaster.
My anchor light is an old battery operated guest? light that I have converted to 12V LED. The lens is a Fresnel type so gives a good 'beam'. It hangs below the anchor ball. I keep thinking that it is to bright but more and more have decided to keep it that way.

 

[rogerthebodger]

If I had the money , and I looked into it, I would get a light aircraft strobe top of the mast.

I did at one time have a strobe at the top of my mast but it got blown off in a storm and I just have not replaced it

One of the Aqua signal anchor / tri colour lights do /did have a strobe included. So they are available

 

[Sandy]

a couple of weeks ago we were anchored up by the saltstone in the Salcombe estuary (ria sounds too pretentious)

But technically correct as no river runs into it

A lovely anchorage.

 

[graham]

I have noticed an increasing number of boats with blue led deck lights fitted .These are very visible and not swallowed up by shore lights.

With a white anchor light that conforms to regs and a couple of blue strip lights you would be pretty safe.

 

[jac]

Force 4 sell an LED type that is light sensitive- overnight it uses less than 1 Ah so no excuse in not having one.