Gaff Rig.... obscured nav light.

[PaulJ]

I want to replace the masthead tricolour nav light on my Norfolk Smuggler. However the boat has a "High Gaff rig" and the gaff and top prt of the sail are higher than the top of the mast........ So there will be some directions from which the nav light will be obscured by the sail and not be visible. I could instal deck level lights and accept the attendant extra battery drain but it is only a small boat and in my experience, being so low, deck level lights are not anywhere near as visible as masthead lights. The boat has a very nice "boom gallows", the top of which must be over 2mtrs above the water so one alternative might be to mount an extra white sternlight on the boom gallows......... or would that just confuse people?

As I said, I am REPLACING an existing fitting so should I just replace it and be done with it or is there something better I could do?

Paul

 

[sarabande]

if you put another white stern light on the boom gallows, and have the masthead white visible, it might look like a vessel over 150ft at anchor from some angles.

Stern light on the gallows at say 8ft ASL, will give you just over 8 miles visibility from the bridge of a ship at 25ft ASL. Advantages are that you can check it's working easily and maintain it.

 

[VicS]

I want to replace the masthead tricolour nav light on my Norfolk Smuggler. However the boat has a "High Gaff rig" and the gaff and top prt of the sail are higher than the top of the mast........ So there will be some directions from which the nav light will be obscured by the sail and not be visible. I could instal deck level lights and accept the attendant extra battery drain but it is only a small boat and in my experience, being so low, deck level lights are not anywhere near as visible as masthead lights. The boat has a very nice "boom gallows", the top of which must be over 2mtrs above the water so one alternative might be to mount an extra white sternlight on the boom gallows......... or would that just confuse people?

As I said, I am REPLACING an existing fitting so should I just replace it and be done with it or is there something better I could do?

Paul

Lights at high level do have disadvantages . They can become "lost" against background shore lights for example when viewed from the bridge of a ship, and are inaccessible when requiring a bulb change etc

In view of the fact that the top part of the mainsail partially obscures a light on the top of the mast I would not bother with the tricolor. Originally the main advantage would have been to limit power consumption when lights all used filament bulbs

LED side lights ( or bicolour,) and stern light is IMHO the way to go. The use of LED lights will reduce your power consumption to a near negligible level. The steaming light can be a filament bulb as you only use that when under power

 

[Capt Popeye]

Humm, from my experience side, stern lighting is best for close river working as the lights are in ones direct view /height from another craft. Masthead lighting often is lost against shore establishments etc.
At sea might be different, but in coastal working the lighting needs to be easily viewed against the back lighting of coastal lighting.
In my view, top mast lighting grew favour when Jibs grew in size and obscured the port /stbd lighting on the shrouds so placing the lighting high above all else became a necessity, and is especially good position for Bermudan rigs. Your Gunter /Gaff rig is a throw back to earlier times and so a Masthead lighting probably not suitable thing to so do.

 

[DownWest]

Why not mask the white of the tricolour and fit a sternlight on the gallows. You can always reverse the idea.

 

[jerrytug]

Make some simple lightboxes, they look trad, and you can put your satellite and navtex aerials in them now nav lights are so small.

The one in the photo is an Aquasignal, it's so bright it makes you eyes water, yet uses almost zero leccy.

It's hard to find places for the sat-mushrooms on a gaffer withouth bodging them on in a vulnerable place, like a stanchion.

My sternlight is on the back of the boom gallows at the moment, badly obscured by the boom when it's resting.

I was thinking of moving the sternlight to one on the gallows stanchions, a foot down, mounted on a streamlined bit of oak to give some protection as well as not be obscured.

I agree with the comments about masthead lights, I have both luckily but if it was either/or, it would have to be reachable.

 

[Woodlouse]

Replace the tricolour with a bicolour and fit a stern light.