Paraffin light.

Re: Used one for years but more lately with...

I wouldn't give you 2 bob for those solar garden lights. They are very popular around here as garden lights but don't actually light anything they just glow a bit. They wouldn't be any good against any background light.
Being a compulsive lecky I wouldn't dream of relying on a hurricane lamp for the risk of it blowing out or worse setting fire to the boat.

The very best would be two arays of LEDs set in a semicircle to give coverage 180 degree asimuth and near horizontal with one set at the bow and one near the stern but relatively low down. Where you look for hulls.
A typical high intensity LED has a spread of light about 30 degrees wide so 5 or 6 would do 180 degrees. You can run 5 in series on 12 volts at about 50 milliamps for the string. ie for 100 milliamps 1/10 amp or one amp hour per night you could have really bright reliable anchor light. A daylight switch is fairly easy to hook up if you want. olewill
 
Re: Used one for years but more lately with...

I've always thought those solar garden lights look uncannily like a yellow street light a couple of miles away.
 
Re: Used one for years but more lately with...

I bought a couple of garden lamps as a cheap source of LED's as they were cheap from the local diy'er. They were advertised as "3x brightness"... and they were. The LED's are set in a clever reflector with three facettes.
I didn't bother cannibalising them. I now have one on the stern which is fine on a very dark loch.
I still use a paraffin hurri lamp... one of the shiny brass chinese jobs with the wick holder from an older, more robust Brit model. The parts are mostly all interchangable.
 
Re: Used one for years but more lately with...

I'm grateful to Steve Cronin for his post....

I was sitting here, with the earlier parts of this post on screen, talking by phone to my mate about anchor lights ( he's heading orf souff and west later this week ), and agreeing that the small LED thingies-on-a-wire are excellent, but that the warmth of a pressure para-lamp on a wet day stuck indoors, and the bug-repellent effect of the same lamp hung up under a cockpit awning in warmer climes is excellent ( both his wife, and I, suffer badly from mossies ). That makes a £26 pressure lantern a 'must have'!

Trouble was, I couldn't remember the name of the mossie-repellent additive. But there it was, just a short scroll away. Thanks again, Steve, for your 'Citronella oil', which will now be sought out PDQ.....

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Anchoring in the Med last year we saw very many boats, particularly French ones, using garden solar lights in anchorages. They are about half as bright as required for regulation purposes but IMHO are quite adequate for anchorages where there is not much fishing or commercial traffic activity. I bought a selection to test in the garden over winter before returning to the boat in a couple of weeks. In the depths of winter it barely came on at all but now is alight until at least midnight. After a good Med sunny day they seem to remain alight until morning.

I have always been something of a paraffin enthusiast and cooked on a Primus in a camper van until recently. However, I always found hurricane lamps to be something of a pain and gave up using them. They do blow out, the glass has to be protected at all times, stowing another type of fuel is a nuisance, the light rolls a lot, etc. Not for me.
 
Re: Paraffin light - on diesel

FWIW the Antarctic Survey used to recommend that in an emergency, ie no more paraffin for the stoves and Tilley, you could use up to 50/50 petrol and avtur (aviation "diesel").

It can burn a bit hot in a pressure burner, and the combustion products aren't good for a healthy lifestyle. Substitute OB petrol and the boat's diesel and I suppose you could run a Tilley if you really had to.
 
Re: Paraffin light - on diesel

On a pedantic note - "Avtur" is Aviation Turbine fuel which is undyed Kerosene NOT diesel. Avtur = Jet A1 = Aviation quality Kerosene.
Morgan
 
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