Hurricane lamps - might as well not bother if there are town lights

[Anonymous]

Re: Hurricane lamps - might as well not bother

[ QUOTE ]
Proper oil fired Anchor lights aren't cheap, but they will see you into your box.

[/ QUOTE ]
You could well be right. Aside from the fire risk and the risk of extra flammable liquid stored, if the colour of the flame is close to that of sodium lights then they will probably be mistaken for city lights. The point I was making when starting this thread.

I am now sitting at anchor off Isola Tabarca; there are few sodium lights and no hurricane or other oil lamps here tonight but the yacht 50m away with a masthead tungsten shows up beautifully against the town lights, as do the masthead tungstens of the half dozen yachts 200m - 500m away. The several mobos with anchor lights (necessarily) lower down are much, much harder to see even in an anchorage with few shore lights. You've only got to sit in an anchorage at night and see for yourself. You can easily see masthead lights in your normal field of view right up close.

 

[William_H]

Re: Hurricane lamps - might as well not bother if there are town light

The idea of identifying lights running on AC is to use the stroboscopic effect because the light is pulsing at 100 herts per second.
Now Flourescent lights pulse beautifully as do other arc type lights used for street lights.
However lights using an incandescent filament will not pulse very well. The temperature will not fall much in 1/100 th of a second so light does not pulse very much.

NB for those confused. AC alternates at 50 cycles per second (60 for Americans) light comes from the pulse of power in the + direction then frrom the -ve direction giving 2 pulses of power per cycle.
So the binoculars trick may eliminate some shore lights as running on AC but does not confirm they are running on DC
olewilll

 

[Chrusty1]

Re: Hurricane lamps - might as well not bother

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Proper oil fired Anchor lights aren't cheap, but they will see you into your box.

[/ QUOTE ]
You could well be right. Aside from the fire risk and the risk of extra flammable liquid stored, if the colour of the flame is close to that of sodium lights then they will probably be mistaken for city lights. The point I was making when starting this thread.

I am now sitting at anchor off Isola Tabarca; there are few sodium lights and no hurricane or other oil lamps here tonight but the yacht 50m away with a masthead tungsten shows up beautifully against the town lights, as do the masthead tungstens of the half dozen yachts 200m - 500m away. The several mobos with anchor lights (necessarily) lower down are much, much harder to see even in an anchorage with few shore lights. You've only got to sit in an anchorage at night and see for yourself. You can easily see masthead lights in your normal field of view right up close.

[/ QUOTE ]



Weeeeeeell, I would take issue with you regarding extra fire risks, Lamp oil or parafin / kerosine, is a lot less flammable than the petrol that most people carry for the tender outboard.

However, I suppose a lot depends on where you sail or cruise to? If you hanker for the bright lights and busy shore life, then I guess you have to weigh up all you options. For someone like me that yearns for peace and tranquility, the problems you mention just don't occur. in any case, I would suggest that in fact a proper anchor light burns with a flame that is nothing like a sodium light, I would also go as far as to suggest that unless you are very fortunate and have anchored in a totally flat calm, an anchor light rigged in the normal fashion, will move a bit with the motion of the boat, sodium street lights don't tend to do that! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

To be honest, I think the light from an oil fired lamp is more easily distinguishable from land lights than a lot of electric lights. Also, although this discussion is very interesting, and it's always nice to read of other peoples views, I can't actually recall anybody being run down by another vessel, whilst showing an anchor light (properly rigged), of any kind, but then I am getting on in years, and maybe my memory isn't what it ought to be? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I guess it's just about different ships, different longsplices?

 

[Bilgediver]

Re: Hurricane lamps - might as well not bother

You've only got to sit in an anchorage at night and see for yourself. You can easily see masthead lights in your normal field of view right up close.
***************************************************

This is cos of your perspective due to sitting with your bum almost at sea level....If on the bridge of a supadupa yacht sitting 30 feet up in the air then the mobos might show up better and the yachts would melt into the street lights!