Headlights

[benjenbav]

Was poking about in the harbour in the dark the other day and I thought, headlights would be just the job.

Now, I'm not talking about open water, where they'd just be a nuisance and I know they wouldn't help tell what's under the surface.

I'm talking about making your way up a river at night. I think they would be a real help. No problem with generating enough leccy with a few hundred horsepower burbling away under your feet.

Anyone know where I can get hold of a half-dozen million candlepower lights to try it out?

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[hlb]

Boats do have headlights, except they call them search lights. But there use is frowned upon in most cases as they generally make it harder for you to see and blinds every one else.

 

[benjenbav]

How come the same doesn't happen in cars?

I think it's just traditionalism that's holding back the march of superlit progress.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Cos in cars they don't reflect off acres of fibreglass, even more acres of water, not to mention the stainless rails. And then there's the lack of water borne cats eyes to show which way to go, no full and dipped beam and finally glass windows which are often salt stained.

Apart from that they are great.

 

[benjenbav]

Details to be overcome, I guess.

Having driven home from Pangbourne this evening through a river passing itself off as a road I think the main problem might be the reflections from the water.

 

[Whitelighter]

In Scandanavian countries it is quite common for boats to have mooring lights (headlights if you will) mounted in the bow. These are angled to illuminate the water and any objects in front of the boat to help mooring at night.

Being mounted at the front and in the hull the acres and acres of GRP arent, and they work pretty well.

You can just see the port mooring light on this picture. there is its pair on the starboard side in the same position.

 

[hlb]

Theres nothing unusual in having seach lights as said. It's just that they have very limited use and mostly your better off without them.

In a car, you might wwant to see 20 yards in detail. In a boat you need to see much further, but not the same detail.

Apart from very close quarter work in the dark, lights only make things worse. Try it.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Definitely close quarter work only. Last boat had a searchlight, only ever used it when on my mooring to look at things on the nearby beach.

It went wrong a good few years ago and I never bothered repairing it. Who wants to destroy their night vision?

 

[mikesyam]

Got a set but have not got round to fitting them yet. saw a F42/5 on Windermere with them fitted, looked ok.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-BOXED-SUNKEN-1...A1%7C240%3A1318

 

[thefatlady]

Best uses I've had for searchlights have been:

Picking out SWMBO overboard in a very busy Hamble entrance on Cowes firework night.

Illuminating the deck, anchor winch and chain when dragging and struggling in filthy conditions amongst moored small boats.

Useless most of the time, but there are a few occasions when I woudn't be without one.

 

[pagreen]

Why not spend your dosh on a FLIR camera and not ruin your night vision?

 

[DJE]

The "Blade Runner" barge goes up the Medina at night showing three bloody great searchlights pointing forward. Trouble is they completely obscure her navigation lights and at first sight they looked like floodlights on one of the gravel wharves. Fine for the barge crew but a PITA for everybody else.

 

[Searush]

[ QUOTE ]
How come the same doesn't happen in cars?

(cut)

[/ QUOTE ]

But it does. At dusk, your eyes are adjusted to the slowly fading light and you can see for miles. Until some clot comes along with unnecessary blazing lights and blinds you until your eyes can readjust.

 

[benjenbav]

So, if driving with headlights is such a bad idea, why doesn't everyone go around with dim little nav lights on their cars? Probably because they'd have to drive at walking pace to keep within their field of vision.

Please no-one try this. You probably won't make it back here to report on your findings.

 

[MapisM]

Nope, the reason is totally different.
With cars, the first problem is to stay on the road, which means that you need to see the road. Avoiding other objects is also important, but comes next.
With boats, the only problem is to avoid other objects, 'cause the road is normally wide enough.

 

[benjenbav]

That's the situation I was talking about originally: a narrow channel up a river. Getting back to my home berth, for example, the fairway is probably no wider relative to my boat than a road is to a car.

 

[MapisM]

Understood - that's why I said that with boats the "road" is normally wide enough.
But you surely see why at sea it makes more sense that boats are just visible to each other, rather than illuminating black waters around them.
In a narrow channel up a river (or a lagoon, for that matter), with no lights around, in a pitch black night, that would probably be an occasion to test my searchlight.
Funny, now that I think of it, probably the last time I turned it on was when surveying my boat before buying her.

 

[hlb]

Theres no one saying you cant use lights, just that in most cases it just blinds you, thats why most instruments are lighted in red. Same reason you dont have the car interiour lights on when driving. Head lights will work for about 20 yards, but your driving in a tunnel, every thing else blanked out.

 

[benjenbav]

Absolutely agree and I do see that at sea these sorts of light would be worse than useless, even dangerous.

I intended to make that clear from the outset. What prompted my original post was threading my way up a narrow channel and speculating that with a bit of extra light it would help.

I had a searchlight on my last boat but only ever used it once or twice in the marina and directed back into the cockpit to see what I was doing when putting the covers on.