john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
£349 a reasonable price? We obviously have different wallets.
LED Nav lights
- Thread starter john_morris_uk
- Start date
Joker
Well-Known Member
Were they looking?
JimC
Well-Known Member
There was a suggestion that a light up at the masthead is easy to mistake for a lower light at a greater distance when viewed from the bridge of a ship. I think this was mentioned at some point in the inquiry and I can well believe that it's true having observed my own masthead anchor light from higher land on shore. Consider the line of sight from the observer.
Rappey
Well-Known Member
I sailed back across the channel on a very dark night. Was a huge number of lights everywhere off the east coast of iow.
Saw the princessa cardinal marker , looked to be around half mile away?
Literally 15 secs later helm was hard over to avoid hitting it!
Drove home how impossible it can be to judge any distance from a light source.
Saw the princessa cardinal marker , looked to be around half mile away?
Literally 15 secs later helm was hard over to avoid hitting it!
Drove home how impossible it can be to judge any distance from a light source.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
With Pride of Bilbao .... I seem to recall that there was a lot of supposition about what happened that night.
Rappey
Well-Known Member
Would certainly agree with that. Why did 3 experienced yachtsmen not see a large ship approaching from behind?
They were not seen on 2 different radar systems but had a reflector.
They could not find the wreck to establish if it was hit.
Bad practices being carried out on the ferry.
There may be those that have nav lights to comply with regulations and others who have lights to be seen.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
If I recall correctly ... Pride of Bilbao was identified as most likely from 'timings' route sailed and she had a mark on the bow.
Testimony from the Second Officer and Watchman - I seem to also recall mentioned they saw a light but not directly ahead ?
john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
Nav lights to be seen can be interpreted many ways. It could include a bright flashing strobe on the top of the mast but there is NO WAY I am going to start acting like a N Cardinal. That way leads to madness (and is illegal).
Decent Nav lights that have a decent visibility, with a radar reflector and a working Class B AIS that's transmitting correctly is good enough for me and much better than we went sailing with when I was a child.
Rappey
Well-Known Member
At 90m they must have been ?
Maib report is all we have to go on.
oldmanofthehills
Well-Known Member
Tricolour LED every time if rolling around in 4 metres swells of the Scilly Isles. Small boat side lights can oh so readilly be obscured by waves, rigging and dodgers. At 25% Navigator complains very strongIy indeed she considers 15% a bit heeled so little worry about cutoff. I have normal port and starboard too, but thats mainly for motoring.
Lights are cheap compared ith sails, engine, liferaft etc
Lights are cheap compared ith sails, engine, liferaft etc
lw395
Well-Known Member
The tricolour also has the advantage of not being obscured by sails etc, and not being prone to lighting up bits of your own boat so you can't see anything else.
I've been on a fair few yachts where these things are a problem.
On open water, the mast being maybe 15m tall is of little consequence at >1500m range when you should first be seen. And ferries etc are mostly still looking down on you.
Close quarters is a different game up river or in harbour.
As the racing rules generally require having two sets of lights, having both Tricolour and lower level lights is a given for many yachts.
adwuk
Well-Known Member
Our Lopo unit packed up due to an ingress of water. Turns out it isn't that uncommon, and they have been through several iterations to try and fix the issue. We replaced it with an AquaSignal unit, which was very easy to install and appears to be plenty bright enough. Only been up for a year, but still working fine.
Elessar
Well-Known Member
Actually both yours and Johns replies have helped me see they have some merit.
Just keep them for use at sea. In crowded waters they do serve to confuse.
Frank Holden
Well-Known Member
Its only money.....
Meanwhile... I didn't realise that Hella is now a New Zealand company.... maybe why the price I paid for the bicolour LED and the steaming/decklight combo didn't make a dent in my memory....
This is the Oz price NaviLED TRIO Tri Colour with Anchor Navigation Lamp
CHSmith is a well established local chandlery....
Maybe you could buy from Oz or NZ?
I hate to think how much money I have given to AquaSignal over the years between degraded plastic lenses, duff electrical connections and general failure..... makes Hella look cheap...
Alfie168
Well-Known Member
Tonight I shall mostly be...........................a hovercraft.... ?
Frank Holden
Well-Known Member
Another Australian outfit that ships overseas.... not sure the freight cost but price of the light should be less 10% GST/VAT
Naviled Trio Led Tri Colour With Anchor | Navigation Lights
I've bought from them a few times
Naviled Trio Led Tri Colour With Anchor | Navigation Lights
I've bought from them a few times
Alfie168
Well-Known Member
If you are a small vessel....like mine with just a masthead tricolour (NASA LED) I've often thought these battery LED lights might be useful for deck level harbour entry lights and such like. I've not bought one but it would certainly save hole drilling and wiring. Those emergency battery lights which use D Cells and incandescent bulbs always seemed utterly useless to me, but LEDS change the game with 2 NM (claimed) visibility.
NAVISAFE | PORTABLE NAVIGATION LIGHTS
NAVISAFE | PORTABLE NAVIGATION LIGHTS
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LouisBrowne
Well-Known Member
I have a NASA tricolour; it’s compact, bright, sharply defined and relatively inexpensive.
I haven’t replaced the conventional side lights and stern light on the basis that more often than not I will have the engine running when I’m using them so the electricity they use is being replaced.
I haven’t replaced the conventional side lights and stern light on the basis that more often than not I will have the engine running when I’m using them so the electricity they use is being replaced.
john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
That would be my logic save for the fact that the lenses in my ancient port and stbd lights are so crazed and misted up they’re limiting the light transmission. I suppose I could try and source new lenses....
zoidberg
Well-Known Member
Makes sense to me.
Some years ago, I wandered across to Baltimore, Co Cork, and back again, and had THREE different wired sets of nav lights fail, for one reason or another. .... ad another.
I ended up with D-cell battery-driven jobs which lasted - just - long enough to get me back.
I still believe in multiple-redundancy in nav lights... and I now have some battery-driven LED clip-on nav lights. They will last a darn sight longer than the old incandescents I had before.