battery powered mast head tricolour

[dylanwinter]

I hardly ever need a masthead lights

on the odd accasion that I do I would like to run one up the penant halyard

does anyone make such a thing

if not.... why not

any ideas about how to make one


Dylan

 

[aslabend]

Why bother?

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

If you mean a tricolour, then you'd never get it lined up on a pennant.

I agree... Why bother?

 

[dylanwinter]

wooden mast

I have a wooden mast

so do not want to put a wire up the outside

as for lining up

I think that two carefully cut crescents of drain pipe would locate it in the correct orientation without too much trouble

Dylan

 

[William_H]

Tricolour battery powered

Not necessarily disagreeing with "why bother"
However you can start with one of the commercial tri colour LED lights like lopolight.
A said you would need to have at least 2 pennants to raise it on to enable you to align it fore and aft and also a pennant tail to pull downward to keep it horizontal.
It could fairly easily be attached to a box with rechargeable batteries.
Or you could make your own light from arrays of coloured LEDs. The "bulbs" (LED actual diodes) can be bought from electronics or from China via Ebay. You would need to wire them in series and parallel with current limiting resistor to suit the chosen battery voltage. PM me if you want details of wiring.

However I have found on my little boat that side cabin mounted P and S commercial LED lights are really bright easily seen and no trouble with mast wiring etc. I use a home made white LED stern light all running off the boats battery itself solar charged. I do about 4 races of 2.5 hrs each in dark each year and feel that in enclosed waters deck level lights are actually more obvious that mast head lights. Certainly on other boats they are more noticeable.
Or you you only sail at night occasionally use the option of single white all round light hoisted some way up the rigging. If you want to make your own I have lots of ideas PM me olewill

 

[Bav34]

Considered

These

Or

These

Or do you really need masthead?

 

[noelex]

Why not use a wired or battery bow bicolour and stern withe light, you need these when motoring anyway (tricolour is not legal with the motor providing power)

 

[aslabend]

I have a wooden mast

so do not want to put a wire up the outside

as for lining up

I think that two carefully cut crescents of drain pipe would locate it in the correct orientation without too much trouble

Dylan

Sorry Dylan, my "why bother" sounded a bit nihilistic but it was my honest first reaction. Wouldn't one sector always be obscured by the mast with a tricolour on the flag pennant? I can't help thinking that a permanent bicolour at the bow and stern light (with maybe an LED bulb) would use almost as little power, be for less hassle/more reliable and give better visibility to others. Just how much night sailing are you planning?

 

[prv]

Wouldn't one sector always be obscured by the mast with a tricolour on the flag pennant?

No - it should be hoisted up above the masthead like a burgee.

Agree that the project doesn't seem to be worth the effort though.

If the boat doesn't have any nav lights, install a bicolour (or separate port and starboard) and a stern light on the cabin sides / pulpit / stern rail / wherever. Using LEDs, the fact that you have two or three lights rather than one doesn't really matter in terms of power consumption.

Then your lights will just work whether you're using the gaff or the bermudan rig.

When everyone had wooden masts and oil lamps, they didn't haul the lights up the mast. The closest you got was an anchor light in the foretriangle. Otherwise all down at deck level.

Pete

 

[dylanwinter]

aha

I miss-remembered the lighting rules

not going to be sailing at night at all

back to the single left bi-colour on the bow and one on the stern attached to long wires

d

 

[woodstock]

http://www.opensailingusa.com/FrontPage_Navisafe.png

These look good!

 

[lw395]

......
When everyone had wooden masts and oil lamps, they didn't haul the lights up the mast. The closest you got was an anchor light in the foretriangle. Otherwise all down at deck level.

Pete

Actually often a way up the shrouds.
With LED lights, cabling can be quite thin, so easily led down the backstay or something.
Don't do yourself out of sailing at night!

 

[dylanwinter]

well found

http://www.opensailingusa.com/FrontPage_Navisafe.png

These look good!

just what I want

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTxR8oLoSf8

http://www.outdoorgb.com/b/NaviSafe/

ideal

job done

D

 

[prv]

Actually often a way up the shrouds.

Well, yes, by "deck level" I didn't mean down where your feet are. Just not halfway up the mast. I've never seen light boxes on shrouds higher than a person could reach.

With LED lights, cabling can be quite thin, so easily led down the backstay or something.

Yes, but it's one more thing to worry about on a boat which Dylan plans to take under bridges and on trailers quite often. Keeping the rig completely free of electrickery will help with that.

Pete

 

[Croak]

just what I want

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTxR8oLoSf8

http://www.outdoorgb.com/b/NaviSafe/

ideal

job done

D

£56!!!!!

 

[dylanwinter]

£42 from ebay

think of all the costs of getting hold of plugs and sockets for the deck, wire up the mast or through the boat if it is mounted low down

cabling and the actual light fitting

even at £52 it would still be cheaper - and better as it can spend almost the whole of its life in a tupperware box in the bilges

Dylan

 

[Applescruffs]

LED Fetishism..for the connaisseur only !

Please....please...please.. post a photo of you wearing it on your head as per diagram on the you tube link....any hat will do as long as the light is flashing S.O.S.........am willing to pay!

Brrrrr....gives me the shivers just thinking of it!!

All the best,

Flasher Harris.

 

[alahol2]

I've never really thought about it before but do gaff/gunter rigged boats use masthead lights?

 

[prv]

I've never really thought about it before but do gaff/gunter rigged boats use masthead lights?

I have what the Colregs mean by "masthead light", and it is indeed just under the masthead. Because it only needs to shine forwardish, the gaff and sail will never be in its way.

I don't have a tricolour, but since they were mostly invented to stop tungsten bulbs flattening a battery overnight, LEDs make it obsolete for me anyway.

I have a bicolour on the front of the mast, above the top of the jib but the requisite distance below the masthead light. I couldn't fit a conventional pushpit-mounted bicolour because the jib out on the end of the bowsprit would obscure it, and there's no practical way to mount a light out there ahead of the jib.

I suppose I could have traditional lighting screens on the shrouds instead of the bicolour up the mast; the staysail mostly doesn't come back far enough to interfere with them.

The stern light is on the mizzen masthead; the mizzen gaff is well below this because the height of the mast was originally designed for a bermudan mizzen.

The anchor light is portable (but plugged in) and hangs from the bottom of the anchor ball on a signal halyard taken forward to the bow.

Can't speak for what other modern gaffers might do; traditionally it would have been oil lamps on light screens on the shrouds and a stern lantern on the taffrail. Steaming light (once engines came along) probably not bothered with.

Pete

 

[dylanwinter]

A lot of wires

A lot of wires there Pete

I think I am going to buy these

http://www.opensailingusa.com/FrontPage_Navisafe.png

one for the bow clipped onto the pulpit ahead of the genoa and the other at the back - same position

I generally do everything I can to avoid sailing or even moving at night

I doubt that I will do much night time sailing - although I did some on the Colne - but I grew up on the River.

I am always sailing in places that I do not know very well

Dylan