Best LED Lantern

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seaesta

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AT the moment I use a parrafin hurricane lamp as an anchor light. This is fine but suspending a tin of flammable liquid and a flame over the boat seems to be basically unsafe.
I can buy an Innova outdoor 12 LED lantern for £8. This has a 40 hour battery life (4 D cells) at maximum light and several days at lower settings. LED life expected to be 100,000 hours
I suspect that the detail of the collision regs would rule out the LED option but common sense would say that the LEDs are safer. I would rather be safer than technically correct.
Can anyone give feedback on portable LEd lanterns and which ones are weather proof?
All contributions apreciated
Martin
 
If you can hoist adequate 'candle power' to the masthead using a portable LED lantern, is it not possible therefore to replace the 'standard' 25w anchor light bulb with some sort of LED cluster?
 
As you are probably aware the efficiency of an LED comes from its highly focused beam (about 10 dgrees wide the ones I have fiddled with) so 12 LEDs would be spaced to all points of the compass. This gives a very focused beam in the horozontal but not much above or below the horizon. Which is fine for a still water anchor light. Any rolling of the boat may cause the light beams to come into and out of beam and have a flashing effect. So you decide but rolling beyond 10 degrees would cause flashing I reckon.(may be wrong) otherwise great. olewill
 
Tim,
I think you can get a cluster of LED s but the trouble is that these would not be within the technicalities of the collision regs which specify the power into a light rather than the light emmitted from it. LEds use much less power to produce light but that would probably not be accepted by an insurance company seeking to "wriggle" out of a claim.
I will keep the boat strictly to the regs but use innovations such as an LED lantern to provide extra light.
Still interested in hearing from anyoe else using these lanterns!
Martin
 
Re: I\'ve just got one of these...

Jerry,

Please let me know how you get on with the bulb and lantern.

The latern I got is not waterproof so it will have to be put in a plastic bag!! I wil get a waterproof one for next season if the present one is OK during this summer

Martin
 
Re: I\'ve just got one of these...

Martin,

Please feel free to PM me later in the year if I haven't let you know! I'm currently waiting for a warmish calm day for the trip up the mast to fit it!

Haven't got the lantern yet, just found the Towsure offering a little while ago. Where did you get your lantern and have you seen waterproof ones anywhere? I was planning to use mine in the wheelhouse (Fisher 25) along with the new mast-head LED. Anchorage is "tucked away" up river so not too much traffic to bump into me!

Cheers,

Jerry
 
Light intensity

[ QUOTE ]
the technicalities of the collision regs which specify the power into a light rather than the light emmitted from it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not so. Lights are specified under Annex 1 of Colregs. Clause 8 specifies the minimum luminous intensity of lights; nowhere does it specify wattage. For vessels shorter than 50m LOA, all-round lights as used for anchor lights should have a visibility of at least 2 miles, which requires a luminous intensity of 4.3 candelas.
 
Whatever solution you go for, using disposable batteries has to be the most expensive and inconvenient choice of them all. As for the safety of a hurricane lamp, like many people, I used one for years and once I'd worked out a sensible method for my rigging and boat, it was fine, and not a significant risk. Hurricane lamps should go out if they are knocked over - try it and reassure yourself. As you know, paraffin is not very flammable and doesn't burn without a wick of some sort until it gets quite hot. If a lantern with disposable batteries looks like your best option, consider modifying it to run off of 12V or use rechargeable cells.
 
Interesting LED "bulbs" specially for marine use are available from here. They include coloured nav lights, and 30 or 48 LED cluster wide or narrow angle light sources for around £17. Havent tried them myself, waiting for you guys to climb the mast!
 
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