Nav Light Question.

[Sandyman]

Late last night I saw a cargo ship departing Portsmouth, she was showing a Starboard nav light up forward, one amidships and one on the stern. Presumably she was showing the same number of light to port.
Switching my AIS on I saw she was 395' in length, 74' in the beam and 7.5m draught.

Now Ive done quite a bit of night sailing and cannot remember seeing this set up before.

Surely this would be a bit confusing if seen through binos on the horizon at night.

Can anyone enlighten me.

 

[Malabar]

I,ve not heard of 3 stbd lights on one side before, but some container ships have an additional light in the eyes of the ship because the lights by the bridge are always being knocked off by containers being loaded or discharged.

 

[MoodySabre]

Annex 1 2f of IRPCS says

(i) The masthead light or lights prescribed in Rule 23 (a) shall be so placed as to be above and clear of all other lights and obstructions except as described in subparagraph (ii).

I assume therefore that the issue of obstruction is the point. These lights may have been visible to you abeam of the vessel but if you were at an angle then perhaps some would be obscured.

 

[Richard10002]

Late last night I saw a cargo ship departing Portsmouth, she was showing a Starboard nav light up forward, one amidships and one on the stern. Presumably she was showing the same number of light to port.
Switching my AIS on I saw she was 395' in length, 74' in the beam and 7.5m draught.

Now Ive done quite a bit of night sailing and cannot remember seeing this set up before.

Surely this would be a bit confusing if seen through binos on the horizon at night.

Can anyone enlighten me.

Could there have been 1 starboard light, and 2 all round green lights? Not sure what the all round greens might mean, but there shouldnt really be a possibility of seeing more than 1 starboard light, (or 1 port light).

It would have been useful to see the port side of the vessel to see if there were 2 green and 1 red

 

[Robin]

Late last night I saw a cargo ship departing Portsmouth, she was showing a Starboard nav light up forward, one amidships and one on the stern. Presumably she was showing the same number of light to port.
Switching my AIS on I saw she was 395' in length, 74' in the beam and 7.5m draught.

Now Ive done quite a bit of night sailing and cannot remember seeing this set up before.

Surely this would be a bit confusing if seen through binos on the horizon at night.

Can anyone enlighten me.

I think the Master was a recently qualified yachtmaster......

 

[Mariner69]

Being that size she would probably have had two tugs standing by close alongside her or connected. You may have seen their side lights but not the tug as a whole as their white lights would tend to merge with the deck lights.