Reflective tape

[bbg]

A random thought occurred to me this weekend.

Having seen just how well reflective tape shows up in low light, would it be a good idea to put reflective tape on the topsides, just below the gunwhale? I wonder whether a few feet of green tape on starboard (near the bow), red on port and white on the stern would make sense.

Any thoughts?

 

[johnalison]

Reflective tape works by reflecting light coming from near the viewer back to his (includes her) eyes. When sailing at night the viewer is not emitting light, except minimally, and therefore there is no light to be reflected back and the yacht will remain invisible. Sorry.

 

[bbg]

I was wondering about this in the context of being in the vicinity of fishing vessels, where there might some ambient light coming from the other vessel itself, but I fear you are probably right.
As with so many things, there is probably a reason it has not been adopted already.

 

[Roberto]

I put a couple of strips on the radar reflector, in this photograph they are only reflecting the flash from a basic camera at about 100m distance..

well worth it, imho

 

[Twister_Ken]

At 100 metres? That's some telephoto!

 

[cgull]

We could all wear reflective yellow jackets like roadworkers and lorry drivers.

 

[Roberto]

you are right, to state things more correctly:
I was (and the flash was) at roughly 100ish metres, it was in the marina there were easily 20-30 boats moored bow-to (halfway on the main pontoon with 80 boats, mine was one of the last, etc), say average 3m beam... measrue along the diagonal one gets around 100m; I used a bit of zoom in the camera lenses and then magnified the picture (the original one was completely black with two bright tiny white spots)

anyway, it has a lot of reflective power even when lighted with a small pocket torchlight /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[jerryat]

Identical to my radar reflector!! With a modest torch I can pick out my boat from a long distance. The stuff's not cheap, but I took the plunge and bought a whole roll a few years ago, and still have plenty left to re-do the lifebuoys, tender and other bits from time to time.

 

[FullCircle]

I have this on Full Circle - up the mast and along the boom.
Here is a shot of a previous boat in Shotley taken from quite a distance.

It is very effective.

 

[Ruffles]

You've used a few quids worth there if it SOLAS tape!

I'm replacing the tape on my life buoys this year 'cos it's flaking off. I think 2m cost me nearly £20. I'm hoping to have enough left for one horizontal stripe round the mast.

 

[FullCircle]

[ QUOTE ]
You've used a few quids worth there if it SOLAS tape!

I'm replacing the tape on my life buoys this year 'cos it's flaking off. I think 2m cost me nearly £20. I'm hoping to have enough left for one horizontal stripe round the mast.

[/ QUOTE ]

£1.50 a metre for 3M SOLAS tape off ebay. Planty of non marine suppliers of that.

 

[st599]

That's because you bought Marine retroreflective tape.

3M will sell this stuff for about £1.20 per metre.

 

[Ruffles]

Got it from PointNorth. They also sell much cheaper iron on stuff which I used on the kids jackets!

 

[Billjratt]

I thought this was a very good idea, better than the dayglo paint I have seen up masts... until I saw the price! >$200 a roll
http://www.jjkeller.com/browse/product.html?group_id=2414
I'll have to think again.
Or maybe go stealing road-cone jackets...

 

[Twister_Ken]

Expensive per roll, but not so bad per foot; about £1 per foot at current forex rates.

 

[bbg]

I feel somewhat vindicated. Not such a silly idea after all, apparently. And yet at the same time somewhat disappointed that I wasn't the first one to have thought of it.

 

[FullCircle]

[ QUOTE ]
I feel somewhat vindicated. Not such a silly idea after all, apparently. And yet at the same time somewhat disappointed that I wasn't the first one to have thought of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry bbg, I first posted on this subject in 2004!

 

[Roberto]

[ QUOTE ]

As with so many things, there is probably a reason it has not been adopted already.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pirates ? /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Should one sail in pirate infested waters, besides radio silence one should quickly step up the mast and cover the whole tape with black paint /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[fishermantwo]

In Australia fishing vessels have to have reflective tape around the gunwale on their dinghies.

Years ago we were having a purse seine shot for bait and one of the deckhands failed to secure the dinghy painter correctly. It was a windy night and the dinghy blew away rapidly. By the time we had recovered the anchor and got under way the dinghy was long gone. We travelled down wind for about 30 minutes searching with a searchlight before the reflective tape showed us the dinghy still at least a mile off. The dinghy was drifting sideways and the sea was making it roll about which made the tape flash. Saved me a lot of money!