night boating

[henryf]

A little tip for night time vision is to look slightly away from the object you are interested in. The reason for this is that your retina has mostly "daylight" cells in the sweet spot at the centre of your vision. The low light cells are concentrated around the outside of this sweet spot.

Next week I'll tell you how to silently kill a man using only your bare hands

Henry.

 

[rbcoomer]

These forum's really are better than any book!

You see the big mobo's with spotties mounted at flybridge height, remote controlled at either helm, but turning them on just seems to illuminate the fore-deck and kicks up a big reflection on the highly polished SS pulpit/deck rails, and you can't see any further out.

That was the sort of issue I had in mind - if I needed any light to investigate anything ahead and used a hand-held spotlight, I'm going to illuminate the bow and consequentially see very little thereafter. I was therefore wondering about the benefit/need for a fore mounted spotlight with a console switch. However reading the comments above, I think I'll try as I am first and hopefully not require any light at all as it would seem the water is likely to have much the same effect? I've done a lot of night driving (commercially for a number of years) and although not really the same, I do have reasonable night-vision. If I choose cloud free nights for the first few trips, the chances of needing a torch should be minimal. By the time I do encounter a particularly dark night, I'll have a bit more confidence and a better familiarity with the local area in the dark. Unfortunately I have a bow navigation light and although this should throw red/green to the sides only, there is bound to be some reflection on the deck/water.

I assume your 14' foot boat will have little electronics, maybe a depth sounder and radio? so no gps to follow.
Learn to identify the nav. lights on other boats moving around at night so you can tell which direction they are travelling, and keep a constant eye on them to calculate their approaching speed to avoid close quarter encounters.

Correct guess! I have VHF with a remote GPS (display-less) wired in to give a DSC 'fix' and a handheld 'fishfinder' (transom mounted transducer) that gives depth & bottom type (rock, mud weed etc). I can program the latter to bleep when less than 1M so I don't need to look at display in the dark. Nothing more sophisticated, but VHF will display lat/long so enough to manage with a chart and some planning. I'm planning to fabricate internal cabin lights from LEDs and a dimmer so I can use minimal light for reading chart etc as and when required.

I am familiar with nav lights and other likely illuminations, but little/no practice in assessing speed of others at night. I do have hydrofoils that were fitted to the boat when I got her, so we can plane from about 10-12kts which should help in keeping our own speed down.

 

[AndieMac]

Next week I'll tell you how to silently kill a man using only your bare hands

Henry.

All the references to sweet spots, sounds like tuning a Porsche H.

 

[oceandrive]

We plan most of our longer runs to happen overnight. So that guests and friends can spend their time at destinations rather than at sea.

We do some 5000 miles a season so it seems the sensible way. Usualy we depart in the early hours of the morning so that we reach destinations mid morning.

Here are a few of our night runs from last year.

Porto Banus to Ibeza via fuel at Almeria 24 Hr fuel bay--

-- Depart Porto Banus 1630 arrive Almeria 2300 fuel 2 hours depart Almeria for anchorage Boulder Rock Ibeza for Breakfast 0830 Merthed Botafoc Marina Lunchtime.

Mahon Menorca to Monaco Depart Mahon 0330 for Monaco direct arrive Monaco 12.30

Genova to Menorca Depart Genova10.00 for Bandol SOF arrive Bandol 17.30 fuel Bandol. depart Bandol 03.00 for Mahon Menorca arrive Mahon 10.00

Brest to La Coruna depart Brest 16.30 direct run for Lacoruna arived La Coruna 05.50

Last year we had many guests who were meeting the boat to do various legs of our trip with us so we always seem to have a need to get to destinations to fall in with flight times.

As far as I'm concerned I quite like running at night as I know where all the guests onboard are " in Bed" so with a plate of butties and the coffee maker gurgling away we tend to wiz around at night staring at the radar screen set at 12 miles with warning cones and alarms set up for 12 and 6 miles.

It's quite funny at times as we have even cought gursts out as they sometimes dont even realise we have changed countries.

This season we plan to visit Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, Greek islands and maybe Croatia. and no doubt many of the sea crossings will be through the night.

We have even considered changing the boat name to the MIDNIGHT EXPRESS

 

[henryf]

All the references to sweet spots, sounds like tuning a Porsche H.

I tell you what, I've done a fair few hours in the GT3 at night. The worst stint in a 24 hour race is always between around 2.00am and 5.00am. Too late for a late night and too early for an early morning. People losing concentration and suddenly sliding across the grass out of nowhere in front of you and the odd gearbox which gives up the ghost and dumps all it's oil over the track just to keep you on your feet.

At least you can't see what you're about to hit so you push on

Keep smiling

Henry

 

[AndieMac]

I tell you what, I've done a fair few hours in the GT3 at night. The worst stint in a 24 hour race is always between around 2.00am and 5.00am. Too late for a late night and too early for an early morning. People losing concentration and suddenly sliding across the grass out of nowhere in front of you and the odd gearbox which gives up the ghost and dumps all it's oil over the track just to keep you on your feet.

At least you can't see what you're about to hit so you push on

Keep smiling

Henry

Do you do any road rally/targa's with the Porsche?

They rate highly with competitors in our annual 'Targa Tasmania'.

 

[prv]

That was the sort of issue I had in mind - if I needed any light to investigate anything ahead and used a hand-held spotlight, I'm going to illuminate the bow and consequentially see very little thereafter.

A handy reflex is to close one eye as soon as any bright lights appear, saving the night vision in that eye. I still do it as habit even walking along a dark pavement when a car comes towards me; in my case it's the right eye as that's the one I'd use to look through a rifle sight

Pete

 

[jfm]

We plan most of our longer runs to happen overnight. So that guests and friends can spend their time at destinations rather than at sea.
...

Mahon Menorca to Monaco Depart Mahon 0330 for Monaco direct arrive Monaco 12.30 ...
This season we plan to visit Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, Greek islands and maybe Croatia. and no doubt many of the sea crossings will be through the night.

We have even considered changing the boat name to the MIDNIGHT EXPRESS

Yup Midnight Exress would be an apt name Ocenadrive! I share your view and like to do long passages through the night especially if the guests on board happen to be good sleepers. I'm intrigued you go so fast though. Mahon-MC in 9 hours means 31-32kts, sheesh. Fuel burn is high, and unless the sea is dead flat the guests sleeping in the bow cabin will be a bit in freefall as the bow falls over the swell. No doubt Mr G is happy in the mid cabin of course, but are the other guests ok? I tend to do 18-20kts on night runs, but I'm not used to boats in the 80-90 foot segment (yet). So do you blast everywhere at 30kts?

Your cruise plans for summer 2011 look good. Bon voyage!

 

[MapisM]

We have even considered changing the boat name to the MIDNIGHT EXPRESS

I'm afraid that's already taken.
On a S/skr, it could appear as a sort of wishful thinking towards really fast boats...

 

[rbcoomer]

Thanks for the 'heads up'...

A handy reflex is to close one eye as soon as any bright lights appear, saving the night vision in that eye. I still do it as habit even walking along a dark pavement when a car comes towards me; in my case it's the right eye as that's the one I'd use to look through a rifle sight

Pete

I like the thinking, but how do you then manage to knock out the offending light with the rifle if that eye's closed?

Problem solved however as I'll now never use a light at sea - just in case you're out there with said rifle...

 

[oceandrive]

the run from Mahon to Monaco was not with current boat rather it was a Pred 72 on a quick hit overnight as the owner had a prospective purchaser. So yes that was probably a 30 knot run. Sea like glass and moon light.

In the main we tend to run at about 23 -25 knots I love the 25 knot thing as the boat is very comfortable at that speed the economy if fair if it ever could be!! and its nice to think four hours at this speed and we've covered a hundred miles. So it's usual to run faster in dusk and twilight but in total darkness with a clear radar screen in open water we usualy do 23-25.

Your right about the forward cabin though if there is anything near a mt then the forward cabin is a bit bouncy bouncy But in a flat sea the forward VIP is airborn and is a fantastic ride (attached pic Just for a laugh) this was taken departing Gurnsey and you didnt want to be trying to sleep in the forward VIP on this day.

 

[ccscott49]

All my night hours are done when passage making, 2-3 nights in a row sometimes. (hard to do more in the meddy) I like passage making at night, you can see ships easily and if you keep out of the way of fishing boats and shipping lanes, then it's fine. Quiet and peacful. As long as I can get my tea, I'm a happy skipper!