Masthead or tri-colour?

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SteveTibbetts

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Time to turn my attention to the woeful state of the wiring in my Snapdragon 747. She currently has red and green nav lights on the cabin sides, a stern light and a broken unit at the top of the mast with 2 wires.
Should i fit a tricolour at the masthead in addition to an all round white? ie.. is it worth the extra money for the parts and extra faff running wires and switches.



Steve
 
In the days before LEDs I would have definitely said yes as the single bulb would save power, as well as the huge advantage of a much more visible light well out at sea. I would still be keen on the pulpit separate lights as close quarter manoeuvring needs lights at deck/eye level to be seen.

It's always a bone of contention but the light which is most useless and dangerous is the all round masthead light for anchoring - brilliantly visible when boats are far too far away to hit you and out of anyone's eyeline when they are less than a few hundred yards away. They do wave about prettily though.
 
SteveTibbetts said:
woeful state ... has red and green nav lights on the cabin sides, a stern light and a broken unit at the top of the mast with 2 wires.
Click to expand...

That's what I have, but I'll fix the masthead one tomorrow.
LED stern, red & green, at about one Watt each. LED all-round white at the top, 5 miles visibilty for about 4 Watts. This same 4Watt globe I have in a corded engine inspection lamp and it serves for engine inspections as well as hanging in the cockpit as a lower-level anchor light. Otherwise, for a remote anchorage, I'll use the masthead white.

The above lights do anchoring, sailing and motor-sailing.
The main isssue is protecting the masthead cable from chafe. But if it does chafe & short through, then by switches you still have the red, green & stern lights.
Here they're only $20: http://www.ledshoponline.com/BA_15_D_LED_masthead_bulb.htm
Much cheaper than any tricolour
 
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I don't reckon you need anything at the masthead. Although you don't mention a steaming light, which needs to be at least a metre above the red/greens, and there's no maximum distance so a masthead white will do the job provided you turn off the stern white at the same time. But you could also fit one lower down and not worry about the top of the mast.

The best anchor light is a portable one (may still be plugged into the boat's power via a cable) hanging above the foredeck.

Pete
 
RupertW said:
In the days before LEDs I would have definitely said yes as the single bulb would save power, as well as the huge advantage of a much more visible light well out at sea. I would still be keen on the pulpit separate lights as close quarter manoeuvring needs lights at deck/eye level to be seen.

It's always a bone of contention but the light which is most useless and dangerous is the all round masthead light for anchoring - brilliantly visible when boats are far too far away to hit you and out of anyone's eyeline when they are less than a few hundred yards away. They do wave about prettily though.
Click to expand...

Tricolour is much more visible in big seas at night and draws less power than the 3 lowers. Although the masthead anchor light is possibly the only legal one, having 360 degree clear visibility, they're pretty useless at close quarters and most cruisers use bright (not garden lights) low down, such as those made by Bebi.
 
My preference is to fit:
Port, starboard and stern ( or bicolour and stern) ... that takes care of the basic lights at deck level for sailing
and a forward facing mast head light ( aka " steaming light") separately switched which then takes care of the lights required under power.

also a tricolour that can be used when a tricolour is more appropriate than deck level lights. ... it's higher and more visible at sea and you don't get any glare if it's misty or any reflections off rigging or stanchions etc. It also illuminates the wind indicator if you have a Hawk or Windex

I have an open mind about an all round white at the mast head. Personally I prefer a light closer to eye level for anchoring but the around white can be used in place of both the stern and mast head under power, putting both effectively well above the waves.

The diagram below shows the legal combination of the common nav lights that can be used on vessels under 12 m



Just in case Ubergeekian, alias Dr Megaphone and Dr Ian Johnston is still lurking here also is picture of an allround whie which may be acceptable as the basic requirement for a vessel under 7m and a top speed of less than 7 knots

 
To answer the original question: if you just want to use lights you already have wiring for, then you will need the existing red, green and stern lights when sailing. Under engine you will ALSO need a white steaming light.
(For vessels under 12 m loa the steaming and stern lights may be combined into one masthead all-round-white. Your choice.)
So you can't have a masthead tricolour unless you run an extra wire up the mast; as without the white, you could not be legal when motoring (or motor-sailing).
You could of course have a separate steaming light part way up the mast (the usual arrangement although it could be obscured by forestay, genoa (rolled up or otherwise) etc,) but that's still another wire.

As an aside; most boats I have seen with separate port and starboard lights have them positioned such that they would readily be obscured by sails (genoa), stays or assorted running rigging. Also, with boat heeled, one of the lights would be very low and thus obscured by wave tops. In such a case a bi-colour light on the pulpit would be preferable (as well as saving precious amps).

And I agree that an anchor light should not be at masthead; in my more optimistic moments I hope that RIB drivers etc might be looking where they are going, but I doubt if they will be looking up at mastheads.

And a question (still within topic I think) from me: I have pulpit red/green, stern,
and masthead all-round-white and tricolour. That gives me a choice under sail of lights at masthead or at eye level. Under power I must use the pulpit red/green and masthead all-round-white; entering a busy harbour under power I feel invisible to small vessels approaching from astern. I don't want to have to fit a separate steaming light (which would mean mast-down to get the job done), but could easily blank off the stern sector of the all-round white, which means I could then use the stern light. Would this be a good idea?
 
I would suggest checking that the cabin-side sidelights are visible at all angles of heel with any reasonable sail setting.
Also that they are not going to reduce the sensitivity of your vision by shining on the sails.
For these reasons I prefer a tricolour up top.

Since I don't like changing bulbs at night, having the deck (pulpit) level sidelights as well seems a good idea, indeed it's more or less obligatory for racing to have a dual system.

Also with anchor lights, you can't win, for every situation where a masthead light is hard to see, there is another situation where a lower light is lost against shore lights. I think a good answer is a masthead anchor light, plus some led lights which illuminate the deck a little. We've considered having these orange (no navigational significance) then at least you could say to the water taxi man 'it's the one with the orange lights on the boom.' That helps if your on a mooring too!
 
blackbeard said:
Under power I must use the pulpit red/green and masthead all-round-white; entering a busy harbour under power I feel invisible to small vessels approaching from astern. I don't want to have to fit a separate steaming light (which would mean mast-down to get the job done), but could easily blank off the stern sector of the all-round white, which means I could then use the stern light. Would this be a good idea?
Click to expand...

It would leave you with a situation somewhat similar to mine.

I have a bicolour part-way up the mast, with a masthead ("steaming") light at the masthead shining forwards only and a stern light on the top of the mizzen shining aft. So my nav lights under all circumstances are the bicolour and stern light, and the masthead light goes on and off with the engine.

If I still had old-fashioned lightbulbs in them I might be worried about having a single set of lights, but I use Bebi packages which each contain two independent sets of LEDs, are potted in a block of resin hence completely waterproof, and are soldered to the supply wires inside two layers of adhesive heatshrink.

Pete
 
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