Cheap tricolour

J

Joe_Cole

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I'm horrified at the cost of tricolour lights so I'm thinking of converting an anchor light with the addition of some coloured filters. Does anyone know where I can get the appropriate filters?

Joe

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the stuff you want is used in theatre lights. the jargon term is 'gels' (pronounced like jelly, not girl!)

it comes in big sheets which are cut to fit the lamps, i expect it would be very expensive to buy it from the theatrical wholesalers but i'm sure your local theatre would sell or give you a few scraps.

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Good photography shops too.. as they are often used in photographic studios..

I wonder if you could make a parrafin tricolour.. for those who prefer not to motor at night this would be a fab way of not draining those ever precious batteries..

Thinking about it I have a very old ships lantern (parrafin) ..bit on the humungous side.. it has sliding glasses with the three different lights... mmmmm next winters project is taking shape already!
 
Some 8 yearsa ago, I bought in Belgium a small, inexpensive Italian tricolour masthead light for a 22 foot sailboat. Might be worth checking on the Web to see if they still produce them. I don't think it would have passed the official tests for the angles at which the colours showed, but given the rather tortuous way a sailboat progresses, it would have worked more or less OK
john

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Under Rule 25(b) the tricolour has to be carried at or near the top of the mast. It's no use just hauling it up on a halyard, because you'll have to meet the alignment conditions of para 9(a)(i) of Annex I, i.e. within about 2 deg. So you'll just have to have your paraffin tricolour rigidly mounted at the top of the mast, and find some way of filling, lighting and extinguishing it. Or you could climb the mast..........

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Thanks for the comments everyone.

Just to set the record straight my existing anchor light is at my masthead. I was thinking of mounting the new light on top of that. It may need some brackets etc. The main problem is, of course to get the right angles, but I think that some careful measuring and cutting should solve that.

I will look to see if the Italian lights are available, but the only ones I've seen are around £70 and too big for my little boat!

Regards

Joe Cole

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G'day Joe,

I made my own some years ago, used an old one kg stainless steel fire extinguisher, cut the windows for anchor and tri lights, welded a plate between upper and lower windows, used Lexan for the glass (Bent using a heat gun) and glued coloured plastic inside for port / starb'd. Still on the boat when I sold her, never a problem.

Your local fire extinguisher serviceman has a variety of stainless steel cylinders available at very reasonable cost, suitable for all sorts of projects, I had an old industrial size Halon s/steel cylinder for hot water storage, and made a heat exchanger from 2 small extinguishers.

Hope this helps

Andavagoodweekend. Old Salt Oz /forums/images/icons/cool.gif

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Keep looking!

There is a cheap tricolour on the market - costing about £20-25 IIRC, and suitable for boats <12m only. Can't remember where I saw it though.

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Try the Lazilas range which are available through Index Marine. Les than a tenner and suitable for small boats. Sound like what you are after and a lot less agro.

Yoda

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3 times up the mast last season due to very flimsy metal used by Lazizlas for bulb holders.

The third time up I fitted an Aquasignal - since then no problems.

I might have just been unlucky or ham-fisted.

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I was thinking that you could fit a sail track to it and hoist it aloft buy sliding up the mast.. that way you could refill at deck level.

Think you would have to lower the mainsail.. unless you fitted a track up the forward half of the mast .. which would probably work better... cor it aint half looking complicated...

How did yachts manage before the 12v leci was installed????

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Going back to Gels - try a) Maplins, or b) your local Disco equipment specialist. Both stock coloured gels at very reasonable prices.

Then there's always Arthur Ransomes Red Woolworths plastic Plate......

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