Nav Lights

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Sitting on mooring buoy at Yarmouth last Sunday casually watching the Nav lights. I'm far from perfect but I saw

M/H Tricolour above Steaming light
Yacht under motor with Tricolour
Tricolour with Nav lights and Steaming Light
Tricolour with Stern light

this was only observing for half an hour. Around half boats seemed to be incorrect.

Thick Fog Monday morning - couldn't even see Yarmouth !
 
All sounds perfectly normal then.

Mine are wired so that i cannot show an illegal combination. The tricolour cannot be on with the side lights, the steaming light can only be switched on if the side lights are already on and the stern light comes on with the side lights.

Unfortunatley the system is not smart enough to know if i am sailing, motoring, anchored or moored.
 
at anchor on Tuesday night in Cawsand Bay there was big whacking grey monster of the RN variety, it was at anchor and had a very clear all round red light at its "masthead" (plus a white all round light above its bow): what light combination was this? Anyone wishes to further my education?
 
In jetset fleshpots like Falmouth Harbour Antigua, most boats of the super yacht variety sport masthead all-round reds. Presumable to frighten off helicopters. They also sport white lights in the spreaders lighting up the mast above, that is, all bar Maltes Falcon which had blue lights. Very pretty. Then some have underwater hull lights giving off a halo of light all round.
 
Last night out in the Solent I passed a motoring 40+ AWB with tri-colour, steaming lights and deck level nav lights all on.
I hailed him to tell him that is tri-colour was on (in a friendly manner, no point scoring intended -honest!) to which his response was "Good!". D***head.

If we as recreational sailors want to be taken seriously, the least we can do is get the simple things right!
 
As far as I can see from hunting around it isn't a correct light pattern... I stand to be corrected though....

Which was at the time ironic, as I was working through lights with one of the crew members.... and that was the first light set we picked to work out.... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

And we had an experienced ex RN hand on board who also didn't recognise the light pattern....
 
My legs are dim and my eyes are old and bent, but I think I recall that this is the night equivalent to signal flag Bravo. "I am loading, carrying or discharging dangerous cargo." Pretty much as suggested by TK.
 
Same here: we were going through the nav lights page on the Reeds with my 13 year old and this thing is sitting closest to us... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif and there was I thinking we were in a "quiet" anchorage! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Or the 40 ish foot yacht that took offence to me illuminating him with a seachlight as he passed down my starboard side in the 5 odd metres between me and the starboard hand marker whilst showing an anchor light and a steaming light under sail?!

Maybe the fact he'd probably left the nearest port (under a mile away) within about an hour of closing time on a Saturday evening had something to do with it?

And interestingly in the light of current events he didn't show on either radar until under 1/2 a mile away... which caused great confusion as we tried to establish what it was we could see.

PW
 
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All-round red also used by anchored oil and gas tankers. Means please don't crash into me coz there might be a very big bang. Guess maybe the RN also carries stuff that could leave a seabed crater.

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Very commonly found in harbour byelaws. Many ships carrying dangerous cargo seem to leave them on all the time, anchored, made fast or under way.

Edit: Yup, it's here in Article 5, Rules, 3(2).
 
All round red = some kind of dangerous cargo/activity going on, e.g. carrying explosives, bunkering, loading/discharging oil etc..

All round white = anchor ISTR RN ships can have their lights in strange places.
 
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