Have you snagged a pot at night?

Thanks for the FLIR info Piers. Very interesting/tempting. They have 2 uk distributors, in kent. I'll enquire. With that and digital radar you'd be £10k light but you'd go anywhere at night

The Navigator2 with pan/tilt seems the one to go for. Bit disappointed with p12 of the pdf brochure though, as it couldn't see inside her bikini... :-)


Edit: I just read prices from UK distributor:

For the Navigator II, it is 4339/3649 €/£ for the fixed one, and 9200/6800 for the pan/tilt with a joystick at 2 helm stations. Plus VAT. Gweep. The "professional" one with multiple cameras in the same box and gyro stabilisation is north of 50k. These are Nov08 prices and with £ weakening I expect the sterling prics will be more than these numbers. In contrast, a raymarine digi radar is about £4k
 
I'll get shouted down on this as I have in the past, but decent headlights would be the thing. I think it's bolx to whine on about loss of night vision etc. If I can put enough light in front of my car to drive confidently at 80/90 mph on the autoroute du soleil (which I obviously can) then I surely can put enough light in front of my boat to drive at a poxy 15 or 20 knots and see what's in front.

In the olden days the problems were light technology and generating enough power but now a bank of bi-xenons powered from a decent pair of mobo engines fixes all that.

OK, the raggies won't have enough power and would probably try to make spotlights from a single 40 watt interior bulb and they'll be like rabbits in the headlights (as it were).
But no gain without pain, as they say.
 
or just fit the searchlight on the bow instead of the radar arch. It's the light shining on the mass of white grp in front of it that causes night blindness.
 
Absolutely, except that when you say searchlight I'm thinking gurt big bank of lights not some tiddling little million candlepower job. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
It's bad enough using powerful torches, searchlights, etc. to try and pick out the buoys marking the channel in to Christchurch when I have a reasonable idea of where they are and we're doing about 5 knots. I'd say that I had zero chance of spotting a pot marker at night at 20 knots even if I had a bank of Cibie's on the front.
 
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I'm now thinking of one of these.

Anyone ever used one?

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I also have a fear of pots in the dark and especially in fast flows such as the Alderney race.



I do not think a camera will help on my boat.

I remember one night passage well, it was between Cromer and Lowerstoft, a heavily potted area.

I reduced speed to 20 knots, I put the spot light on and it was like a disco strobe light ball.
COMPLETELY USELESS AS WE BOUNCED AROUND

I appreciate you are much larger, more stable and tend to cruise slower but your bow will still have a lot of movement, your camera will surly act in a similar fashion to my spot light and spend very little time pointing forward in a settled stable fashion long enough to obtain a usable image.
if your spot light manages a stable projection while underway then of course my concerns can be ignored.
 
My 'Spur' cutters have done about 10,000 hours, spare plastic bearing still unused, but low revs compared to you lot, max 700 shaft rpm.

Is it possible that there is insufficient scope for for and aft movement of the shaft due to flexible engine mounts, the fixed blade meeting the fore end of the mounting block? In other words, the shaft mounted collar needs to be further aft.
It should be noted that a previous boat wore them out very quickly due to working in and out of Hayle in shallow sandy water.
 
Piers, I've done many night passages over the years. My previous boat was single screw and had no rope cutters. Maybe I was lucky but not once did we snag anything. But we always kept a good lookout, it's surprising how much you can see at night. And all of us are divers with gear on board with no particular problem with night diving, although if it was rough that would be a real issue. But our diving skills were never required.
I feel sure that keeping a good lookout was key to our good luck.
 
Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I have an excellent Simrad radar and when it comes time to upgrade, it will be to a digital radar. The choice will be between Raymarine or even a commercial Furuno.

The FLIR? I think I will chat with the UK people and see where it leads. As you say, jfm, shame about the bikini!
 
Hello Piers,

We also do not night cruise for much the same reasons as you. We have snagged a pot marker (small, blue, no flag) in Falmouth Bay in broad daylight and encountered netting off Belgium (the rope cutters failed to break through the netting but fortunately it only caught one prop). We have also seen large cable drums and a partially submerged fridge. I doubt any radar or night vision kit would have enabled us to see it in the dark. I guess we shall stick to daylight hours mostly.

Regards,

Richard.
 
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I reduced speed to 20 knots, I put the spot light on and it was like a disco strobe light ball.
COMPLETELY USELESS AS WE BOUNCED AROUND


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That's why you want bi-xenons 'cos they will stabilise and self level.
 
A little unfair, I think as the instructions very clearly state that they should be inspected regularly (for example at annual haulout) for wear and bearings replaced, No point in buying expensive safety orientated equipment and then fail to maintain it properly.
 
Agreed, mea culpa on the maintenance thing (though, Peters who fited them didn't give me any instructions!). But my point is they need maintenance, and since there are others that require no/less maintenance that makes the Ambassador Strippers a bit crap imho. Other point is that the consequences of this wear-out are that your boat is immobilised. I'd rahter have things which when they run out of life merely stop working but don't stop your boat
 
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