Mast lights Question?

[petem]

Blimey P, is that the original FL setup? Makes me wonder what were they thinking...
If being forced to keep the dashboard lights constantly on while cruising at night ain't silly, I don't know what else is! :ambivalence:

It's the back lights for the guages. I think that's the set up anyway.

 

[MapisM]

It's the back lights for the guages.

Yep P, I guessed so.
But the point is that at night, it makes much more sense to be able to turn the back lights on just occasionally, whenever for any reason you wish to check them out (which is actually very rare).
Leaving a towel on them at all times is of course an alternative, but not one that I really like... :ambivalence:

In your boots, I'd definitely put the dash light under a separate switch - unless of course you are not planning night cruising at all...

 

[benjenbav]

On my last boat I had the gauges on a separate dimmer switch to give the opportunity of having the gauges just visible without compromising night vision as well as off altogether.

 

[Portofino]

What colour back lights are being discussed ^^^ .
I understand red does not ruin your night vision .
We have red ( sep switch btw ) and down below in the saloon the cantaloupi down light over the table is red too ,with its own separate switch .So you can red light the saloon .

Have not done that in the marina with the wife sat up top ,and Dutch neighbours—walking by — Yet

 

[benjenbav]

Head torches (white/red) are a great way to preserve night vision, with the light shining away from your eyes...unless you catch sight of the beam reflected back from a window.

 

[petem]

What colour back lights are being discussed ^^^ .
I understand red does not ruin your night vision .

Yep, Red.

 

[MapisM]

What colour back lights are being discussed.
I understand red does not ruin your night vision.

In my experience, the only thing that doesn't impair your night vision is total darkness.
When I spent three nights in a row at the helm in a long passage, strictly at D speed and strictly on A/P, for 90% of the time we had ZERO lights inside the P/H.
The remaining 10% was just for the odd route check, of to verify the CPA on AIS whenever approaching other vessels - and it took a while, after checking the instruments, before the eyes were again capable to give a decent outside view.
Of course, this is only true when cruising at night with good visibility.
In fog and/or heavy rain, when you have no other choice than relying on the radar for collision avoidance, you can leave the instruments backlight on as well...

PS: in the above occasion, the boat was also equipped with a rather sophisticated FLIR camera, but we kept also that screen off most of the time. In a clear night, there's no replacement for mk1 eyeball, imho.