Handheld Spotlights

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robbieg

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I'm thinking of getting a handheld spotlight for picking up buoys at night and shining into the main if threatened by a big ship!

Priorities are the spot is lite and not too large for stowage purposes. Choice seems to be rechargeable torches which offer 1m plus candlepower (these seem to go from £10 to £50 +) or a smaller spot which plugs into the boat 12v supply-seems to be about £30+. Anyone any recommendations?
 
I have one of each, and find I use the rechargeable one more often. Buy a rechargeable one from Wilko for about £6.99. Not worth spending more as you will only drop it overboard, or drop it, (or put it under your Discovery wheels to stop it rolling away, as I did) and at that cost you don't worry too much.

Only paid £10 for a 12v plug in one at a boat jumble.
 
Got mine from Homebase last year. About £10. Recharges an internal lead-acid battery via. mains or 12V. Very pleased with it for the purpose you mention, but it wouldn't take a dunking in the sea. I noticed a few days ago that they have LED versions now. Don't know how the power compares though.
 
I got caught out last year in pitch dark, could not see my mooring or any other boats on the moorings because of the background lights in the bay, did eventually pick it up with a bit of cautious manouvering, but swore I would never be in that situation without a good search light again.
Bought a Hella Marine plug in one with 100w and 50w bulbs, it has a trigger for morse signalling using one of the bulbs, each bulb can be used seperatly or together.
Was expensive at £127.
I cant agree with the rechargable ones, because they are only as good as the length of charge, which leaves you in the dark if the you need the torch for longer than the charge lasts, better with a plug in one, as it is also less bulky and lighter, plus the benifits of longer usage time.
 
I replaced a cheapy rechargeable with a much more expensive 50W Aquasignal Bremen waterproof searchlight run off the boat's 24v this year - could only get 15-20 mins max out of the rechargeable which was not long enough to reliably get into harbour.

The Aquasignal's beam is far better than the claimed million candle output of the cheapy, it doesn't feel like it will pack up unexpectedly and I reckon it's money well spent.
 
I was in B & Q recently and saw one with 15 million candle power ! I kid you not, about £ 30 if memory serves. 15 million "I dont believe it "
 
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I replaced a cheapy rechargeable with a much more expensive 50W Aquasignal Bremen waterproof searchlight run off the boat's 24v this year - could only get 15-20 mins max out of the rechargeable which was not long enough to reliably get into harbour.

The Aquasignal's beam is far better than the claimed million candle output of the cheapy, it doesn't feel like it will pack up unexpectedly and I reckon it's money well spent.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same experience here - I bought a couple of cheap rechargables last year - on offer at a filling station for <£10 each. They take about 12 hours to charge, and last for less than 20mins. As a result I bought the aquasignal, which is always available.

John
 
Dont go for the huge candlepower ones - more power, less battery life on a charge. I have 500,000 CP amd it is more than bright enough, has good battery life and cheap
 
[ QUOTE ]
Dont go for the huge candlepower ones - more power, less battery life on a charge. I have 500,000 CP amd it is more than bright enough

[/ QUOTE ] Ours died and when a friend who was joining us for a short leg bought a massive 3,000,000 CP jobbie out from Halfords I thought it was too big.

Six days later we were very nearly run down approaching a major port at night and I was delighted to be able to fire all those photons at the offending vessel - it noticed us all right . . .

I regard it as an emergency device only, not as a torch - we already have plenty of them on board - so IMO the more power the better. You will always find somewhere to stow it, and it is much safer than white flares as an anti-collision device.
 
I bought a rechargeable Nitetracker 1 million cp a few years back in the USA which charges from both 110v and 12v so it gets charged off the ship's batteries. It lasts about 20 minutes or more but I've never yet run it flat, simply because it has a trigger switch and is used in short bursts not 'on' continuously. It can also be run directly from the ship's supply if needs be on it's 12v charging lead. It doesn't focus but it does have a good quality reflector so a well focused beam with minimal scatter and it has a seemingly huge effective range. I'm not sure which kind of battery is fitted but it holds a charge amazingly well and will work having been left several months without a top up, I'm not sure if the £10 specials in Homebase/B&Q would do the same.

I would be concerned at the idea of using a spotlight routinely to enter harbour as I have seen people do, because that destroys night vision totally. We use ours rarely but when looking for a visitor mooring in a strange area from in amongst many other moorings it is excellent, as it is for lighting up the sails or even the bridge of a ship should that be required - I have only done that one time so far and it got an instant response of 'OK we see you, we are clearing you ahead' on the VHF which saved us from making a difficult manouevre in some really heavy weather.
 
I bought one of the rechargeable LED ones last year for about £12.99- 1M CP-made by Hyundai I think. I do believe these have a longer usable life before re-charge- I have certainly well exceeded the 20-30 minute times quoted by some above.
 
I'm not sure that a spotlight is the right thing. I find it tiresome for instance to wave it about looking for all the obstructions amongst moorings and would prefer a lamp with a beam pattern that is more like a car headlight than a spotlight.

In fact I might fish out that old sealed beam fog light for an even wider beam.

I wouldn't have a searchlight that wouldn't run off ships supply in case the rechargeable wasn't charged when needed.

I don't speak candlepower but in terms of 12v halogen bulbs I reckon that anything over about 35 watts should be adequate when you consider the speed diferential between road vehicles and yachts.
 
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