Head torch recommendation?

davidjackson said:
Your view is no less constructive than any other........it’s just that I don’t share it ?

I am that grumpy skipper. My main reason for wanting a same-as replacement was to avoid the crazy trend of having too many, silly and unnecessary lamp options, imho, of course.

In my retirement from making an honest living, I now have a bit of fun on school boats teaching DS etc. A red light is very useful to help the navigator read his night Pilotage plan. The aim is to help new sailors learn their skills, not necessarily for salty sea dogs to hone their doubtless already impressive anchoring skills. Give ‘em a break ?

They are also useful at the chart table during night passages. On a fully crewed boat on a longer passage there may be off-watch crew asleep in the main cabin. I try to teach courtesy to others and a red light generally doesn’t disturb slumber.

I’ve been night-blinded many times by white lights in the cockpit, by phones and by the cycling of multi switch headlamps.

On a night passage, the crew need to develop their night vision skills to identify the next mark, often against light pollution from the shore, so no lights allowed. The navigator, however, needs to refer to his written plan so using a red light is a good progressive step towards your skill level of having fully developed night visition ?
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An old trick .... if you need to go into a lit area during the night .... close one eye .... or close eyes till they are just a slit to just see through ...
 
If anyones interested and they have a torch / headlamp without RED filter ............ its easy to sort.

Get a piece of Clingfilm ... stretch over lens and smooth out to stick ... red marker pen ... colour the lens part of the clingfilm. You can even get pre-coloured film ..

On some ships - we had torches that had a press on red or blue filter ... it just clipped onto the normal clear lens ring.
 
A bit of thread drift as we now seem to be posting about night sailing........

As new, my boat’s binnacle compasses (twin wheels) were illuminated by white LED lights. They were far too bright, generated a lot of light pollution and disturbed night vision from the cockpit. I changed them and soldered red LEDs in their place. Big improvement.
 
Refueler said:
If anyones interested and they have a torch / headlamp without RED filter ............ its easy to sort.

Get a piece of Clingfilm ... stretch over lens and smooth out to stick ... red marker pen ... colour the lens part of the clingfilm. You can even get pre-coloured film ..

On some ships - we had torches that had a press on red or blue filter ... it just clipped onto the normal clear lens ring.
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Very PBO. Or, as I have done, red nail varnish over a headtorch and one of the cabin lights.
 
stu9000 said:
LOL. I tend to do it on a tide, leaning up against the posts. Hazmat suit, wellies and head torch. Bedraggled from spraying down the hull and covered in blue paint. Love it
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The mind boggles :unsure:
As the full moon rises no doubt
All you need is a naked, drugged virgin on a white sheet
A few club members in white peaked hats chanting & you would be well away.
Does SWIMBO know,?:devilish:
 
davidjackson said:
The spec shows that it’s a single button with 3 lamp options, red, hi and lo white. Do you have to scroll the switch to get red?
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Yes, I admit you do, although red is the first position - when you switch the lamp on it comes on red.

Then when I've finished using it I take it off and hold the face of the lamp against my leg or my jacket, so it doesn't shine out, as I press the switch twice more to switch it off. I think you may be able to cover it with your hand whilst still wearing it, I can't remember for sure.

I like this head torch because it's such a simple design, and it's also very small.

seumask said:
The switch is a + and a - , Pres plus once and it goes red, again goes low white, again goes med, again High. To turn off press - reversing the above steps. IMHO very simple to operate starting with red.
Charge state indicated by seperate small led light Green , orange ,red. It takes less than an Hour to recharge from red in my experience. But I note the details on the site say 2-2.5 hours
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Not the one I linked in the post Mr Jackson was quoting.
 
If there is anyone left reading this thread wanting a simple, switchable red and white head lamp, I was walking around a shop called The Range yesterday and saw that they sell them for £2.99 without the 3 x AAA batteries. Looks absolutely identical to the one I bought many years ago direct from China (with no-longer-stretchy head band) and almost identical (without logo) to the Energiser one I bought last week from Halfords.
 
davidjackson said:
If there is anyone left reading this thread wanting a simple, switchable red and white head lamp, I was walking around a shop called The Range yesterday and saw that they sell them for £2.99 without the 3 x AAA batteries. Looks absolutely identical to the one I bought many years ago direct from China (with no-longer-stretchy head band) and almost identical (without logo) to the Energiser one I bought last week from Halfords.
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Welcome to todays world of Re-Branding / Re-Labeling ....
 
I bought a cheap head torch in home bargains last October, I think it was less than a fiver. You have to scroll past the first dim option to get the bright one, it also flashes. It takes 3 AAA I think, I haven't changed them all winter. Helped in fixing the bike and boat in the winter darkness. It also has a stretchy headband.
 
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