JohnRose
New Member
Can anyone recommend a solar light suitable for us as an anchor light ?
SOLAR ANCHOR LIGHT
- Thread starter JohnRose
- Start date
A
Anonymous
Guest
I don't think that there is a solar lamp that meets the official requirements though many people do (at their own risk and peril) use solar garden lamps. You can install a solar panel and that will keep the battery up sufficient to run a standard anchor light that does meet the requirements. The requirements are laid down in the Collision Regulations
alisdair4
Well-Known Member
A technique I use is to semi-permanently attach a £9.99 garden light to the pulpit. If day sailing, the lamp charges up during the day, and lights up at night. If sailing at night, you stow the light below. If using a mooring, it is a re-assurance to know that your boat is still there - and it tends to prevent MOBO owners running your boat down! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
This has worked on Freya all season, FWIW.
This has worked on Freya all season, FWIW.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
There is an LED anchor light available, see it at http://www.triton-marine.co.uk/Anchor-jul06.htm We bought one last year after querying the supplier. Apparently it fully satisfies the regulations. Ours is superb, highly visible at 2 miles and usually the brightest in any anchorage.
Garden lights used as anchor lights are frightening, if one can be seen at much over 100 metres it is unusual.
Garden lights used as anchor lights are frightening, if one can be seen at much over 100 metres it is unusual.
alisdair4
Well-Known Member
Mine can be seen at 1 nm -maybe I'm lucky!
cynthia
Well-Known Member
Can recommend the LED anchor light - 2 mile visibility; low power consumption; automatic switch on and off. Had one for 3 years - bought from BP Solar in Portugal. Not cheap but very effective.
mithril
Well-Known Member
yes go with the BBQ solar lights. The internal Ni-Cd batteries are real cheapies and dont last the summer if you leave them on permenently as we do but for 5 euro I've put proper Ni-MH cells and they are now over a year old.
Its maybe true they are not legal but if you did everything by he book life would be a nightmare.
Final thought. make sure you wear a life-vest as you go forward to switch them on.
Its maybe true they are not legal but if you did everything by he book life would be a nightmare.
Final thought. make sure you wear a life-vest as you go forward to switch them on.
A
Anonymous
Guest
[ QUOTE ]
yes go with the BBQ solar lights. ......Its maybe true they are not legal but if you did everything by he book life would be a nightmare.
[/ QUOTE ]Talking of nightmares, you might end up with recurrent nightmares if you go to sleep in an anchorage without adequate lighting, and another vessel hits you. If the nightmare isn't about the loss of your boat or, maybe, loss of life or near-loss of life, the nightmare might be a financial one following the damages claim that the other vessel makes against you for damage to to his vessel (maybe a brand-new £500,000 gin palace owned by a company with a tame lawyer?).
Ideally you should have an anchor light made by a reputable firm, purporting to be an anchor light, and installed in accordance with their instructions.
We often enter anchorages in the pitch dark and I can say that the most effective anchor light of all is on the top of the mast. Lights lower down can get obstructed (and usually do) and therefore don't comply and get lost in the clutter of shore lights and other boat lights. Garden solar lamps are usually invisible when your eyes are searching across a background of a town with lights and other (decent) yacht lights. They probably seem OK to the owner who only sees them coming back to his vessel from ashore - which is NOT the direction that incoming vessels will be coming from!
As a liveaboard I know there is pressure to cut back on standing loads but cutting down on lights required for visibility and collision avoidance is not an area where economies should be made, unless the alternatives are in every way equal to or better than the traditional solution.
I'd like to shoot the people who turn off their tricolour lights at sea when they think they are not needed. Half a dozen times a year I come across some berk who, on a pitch dark night, paints on the radar and is invisible. Then you deduce (or see when the moon comes out) that they are a yacht running without lights. They should be strung up by their gonads. I feel better for saying that /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
yes go with the BBQ solar lights. ......Its maybe true they are not legal but if you did everything by he book life would be a nightmare.
[/ QUOTE ]Talking of nightmares, you might end up with recurrent nightmares if you go to sleep in an anchorage without adequate lighting, and another vessel hits you. If the nightmare isn't about the loss of your boat or, maybe, loss of life or near-loss of life, the nightmare might be a financial one following the damages claim that the other vessel makes against you for damage to to his vessel (maybe a brand-new £500,000 gin palace owned by a company with a tame lawyer?).
Ideally you should have an anchor light made by a reputable firm, purporting to be an anchor light, and installed in accordance with their instructions.
We often enter anchorages in the pitch dark and I can say that the most effective anchor light of all is on the top of the mast. Lights lower down can get obstructed (and usually do) and therefore don't comply and get lost in the clutter of shore lights and other boat lights. Garden solar lamps are usually invisible when your eyes are searching across a background of a town with lights and other (decent) yacht lights. They probably seem OK to the owner who only sees them coming back to his vessel from ashore - which is NOT the direction that incoming vessels will be coming from!
As a liveaboard I know there is pressure to cut back on standing loads but cutting down on lights required for visibility and collision avoidance is not an area where economies should be made, unless the alternatives are in every way equal to or better than the traditional solution.
I'd like to shoot the people who turn off their tricolour lights at sea when they think they are not needed. Half a dozen times a year I come across some berk who, on a pitch dark night, paints on the radar and is invisible. Then you deduce (or see when the moon comes out) that they are a yacht running without lights. They should be strung up by their gonads. I feel better for saying that /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
baggypipes
Well-Known Member
Yes triton marine LED anchor light which does conform to regs plugs into cig lighter plug 10m cable 0.09A 12v £29.99
do not agree about lights at top of mast the only safe bet they can & do get confused with stars & get lost. Lights lower down DO still conform to regs providing they are an all round white & yes these may get confused with town lights. I have no connection with the above company just share personal experience
do not agree about lights at top of mast the only safe bet they can & do get confused with stars & get lost. Lights lower down DO still conform to regs providing they are an all round white & yes these may get confused with town lights. I have no connection with the above company just share personal experience
savageseadog
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
Can anyone recommend a solar light suitable for us as an anchor light ?
[/ QUOTE ]Best solar light is the sun, very effective, it should be possible to see your boat for miles.
Can anyone recommend a solar light suitable for us as an anchor light ?
[/ QUOTE ]Best solar light is the sun, very effective, it should be possible to see your boat for miles.
A
Anonymous
Guest
[ QUOTE ]
do not agree about lights at top of mast the only safe bet they can & do get confused with stars
[/ QUOTE ]You're pulling my leg, surely? Which star(s) are anywhere near as bright (or the same colour and character) as a light with a visibility of 2nm? I have never, ever, been confused by a masthead light.
Have you ever mistaken a masthead anchor light for 'stars'? If so, which star did you think it was?
do not agree about lights at top of mast the only safe bet they can & do get confused with stars
[/ QUOTE ]You're pulling my leg, surely? Which star(s) are anywhere near as bright (or the same colour and character) as a light with a visibility of 2nm? I have never, ever, been confused by a masthead light.
Have you ever mistaken a masthead anchor light for 'stars'? If so, which star did you think it was?
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
I can't say I have ever mistaken a masthead light for a star but I agree with the previous poster that this is not the optimum position for an anchor light. I find it very difficult to identify the 'owner' of high lights in a crowded anchorage and if I have my sprayhood and bimini up I have some difficulty in seeing up there anyway. For me, a good bright anchor light at a couple of metres above the water is perfect. Even with background town lighting a sufficiently bright anchor light is pretty obvious.
Garden lights are nowhere near bright enough for safety and praffin lights are barely better. I have seen several in use recently, although I don't know the exact type in service at the time, and there is no doubt that they did not comply with the two miles requirement by a very big margin.
Garden lights are nowhere near bright enough for safety and praffin lights are barely better. I have seen several in use recently, although I don't know the exact type in service at the time, and there is no doubt that they did not comply with the two miles requirement by a very big margin.
G
Guest
Guest
Worth remembering ... visibility of a light ..
or should we say Visible Range ... more correctly.
People happily trot out .... visible at 2nm etc. Remember that is calssified as :
On a dark Night and a clear atmosphere.
2nm in those terms is actually not so powerful as you think.
I agree though that you should have as powerful a light as possible - in fact I say that is for ALL nav lights ... not just anchor. The Coll Regs specs are minimum specs ...
or should we say Visible Range ... more correctly.
People happily trot out .... visible at 2nm etc. Remember that is calssified as :
On a dark Night and a clear atmosphere.
2nm in those terms is actually not so powerful as you think.
I agree though that you should have as powerful a light as possible - in fact I say that is for ALL nav lights ... not just anchor. The Coll Regs specs are minimum specs ...
Abigail
Well-Known Member
I really agree with Lemain about the brightness, and have on other posts recommended the Davis light which has a solar switch but a very low draw on your batteries.
The height question is really vexed! We have different strategies in different anchorages. If this is a pleasure boats only anchorage, especially against a dark background, then one at about 3m above the deck works best, we think (but it must be of the adequate brightness). So eg at Gelves near Seville, or in the Walton Backwaters in Essex, where there's very little lighting on the bank and very little non-small boat traffic.
But if there are big boats about, such as if you anchor off Canvey Island to wait for the tide in the Thames, then we use the mast head, because that's the right height for those boats to see it best. Similarly, against a brightly lit background, we would tend to use the mast hhead light, becuase it will be 'above' the town for incoming vessels.
On a dark, wet night, the long suffering person waiting to drop the anchor can also carry a strong, tight beam torch, which will reduce risk to night vision but help to pick out what's around you in a helpful way!
The height question is really vexed! We have different strategies in different anchorages. If this is a pleasure boats only anchorage, especially against a dark background, then one at about 3m above the deck works best, we think (but it must be of the adequate brightness). So eg at Gelves near Seville, or in the Walton Backwaters in Essex, where there's very little lighting on the bank and very little non-small boat traffic.
But if there are big boats about, such as if you anchor off Canvey Island to wait for the tide in the Thames, then we use the mast head, because that's the right height for those boats to see it best. Similarly, against a brightly lit background, we would tend to use the mast hhead light, becuase it will be 'above' the town for incoming vessels.
On a dark, wet night, the long suffering person waiting to drop the anchor can also carry a strong, tight beam torch, which will reduce risk to night vision but help to pick out what's around you in a helpful way!
pcatterall
Well-Known Member
Does the Triton Marine light switch on automatically. Just looked at the description and couldnt see this.
I guess that my little solar panel would keep the batteries charged and run the LEDs??
I guess that my little solar panel would keep the batteries charged and run the LEDs??
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
No it doesn't, although I have been considering making a separate light-controlled switch. However, its consumption is so small that the extra hour or two that it burns in daylight in the morning represents a negligible amount of current. Its consumption of 0.09 A would be met by my larger panels, even just after sunrise. If we have a lie-in without turning the light off, by about 0800 our panels are giving more than 1 Amp, in Greece.
VicS
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
Does the Triton Marine light switch on automatically
[/ QUOTE ] This unit mentioed in another thread will do the job http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TWILIGHT-SWITCH-12...1QQcmdZViewItem
Does the Triton Marine light switch on automatically
[/ QUOTE ] This unit mentioed in another thread will do the job http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TWILIGHT-SWITCH-12...1QQcmdZViewItem
mortehoe
Well-Known Member
Homemade LED Anchor + decklight
I use a non-legal anchorlight which is hoisted about 4m above the deck. It's a bastardized garden light ie ex-solar casing only (existing control gear ditched) with a power LED replacing the one supplied as I wanted the 360 degree reflector using a 40 degree 1W white LED. It also has its bottom fitted with a downpointing single 120 degree 1W LED. Both lights come off a single 3 core flex which is plugged into another homemade PWM 200 Hz, <20% duty cycle driver mounted behind the switchboard.
The reason that a downlight has been added is to illuminate the boat ie say at Porth Dinllaen when you are rowing back from Ty Goch /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif you are presented on a summer W/E with a whole host of anchor lights and my boat (sofar) is the only one that shows up the deck against the host of indecipherable masthead lights.
Power consumption: Anchor light: 22 mA, 5000 mCd; Deck downlighter: 32 mA; 6100 mCd.
The anchor light conforms with Colregs in that it's visible for upto 3 miles (only need 2 miles)but fails to conform to EN 14744 .... which states (paraphrased) that any non incandescant light shall have some form of warning device to show that if the luminescence of the light falls below the output requirement as stated in COLREGS then an automatic warning device will be activated (!!!! ---- ????)
I use a non-legal anchorlight which is hoisted about 4m above the deck. It's a bastardized garden light ie ex-solar casing only (existing control gear ditched) with a power LED replacing the one supplied as I wanted the 360 degree reflector using a 40 degree 1W white LED. It also has its bottom fitted with a downpointing single 120 degree 1W LED. Both lights come off a single 3 core flex which is plugged into another homemade PWM 200 Hz, <20% duty cycle driver mounted behind the switchboard.
The reason that a downlight has been added is to illuminate the boat ie say at Porth Dinllaen when you are rowing back from Ty Goch /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif you are presented on a summer W/E with a whole host of anchor lights and my boat (sofar) is the only one that shows up the deck against the host of indecipherable masthead lights.
Power consumption: Anchor light: 22 mA, 5000 mCd; Deck downlighter: 32 mA; 6100 mCd.
The anchor light conforms with Colregs in that it's visible for upto 3 miles (only need 2 miles)but fails to conform to EN 14744 .... which states (paraphrased) that any non incandescant light shall have some form of warning device to show that if the luminescence of the light falls below the output requirement as stated in COLREGS then an automatic warning device will be activated (!!!! ---- ????)
A
Anonymous
Guest
Re: Homemade LED Anchor + decklight
[ QUOTE ]
The anchor light conforms with Colregs in that it's visible for upto 3 miles (only need 2 miles)but fails to conform to EN 14744 .... which states (paraphrased) that any non incandescant light shall have some form of warning device to show that if the luminescence of the light falls below the output requirement as stated in COLREGS then an automatic warning device will be activated (!!!! ---- ????)
[/ QUOTE ]Sounds as though the guys from the incandescent manufacturers won the day on that EN Working Group! Clearly it is impossible to comply with that requirement...should be easy for the LED mfrs to appeal and insist on an amendment which could come into effect quickly, in draft form.
[ QUOTE ]
The anchor light conforms with Colregs in that it's visible for upto 3 miles (only need 2 miles)but fails to conform to EN 14744 .... which states (paraphrased) that any non incandescant light shall have some form of warning device to show that if the luminescence of the light falls below the output requirement as stated in COLREGS then an automatic warning device will be activated (!!!! ---- ????)
[/ QUOTE ]Sounds as though the guys from the incandescent manufacturers won the day on that EN Working Group! Clearly it is impossible to comply with that requirement...should be easy for the LED mfrs to appeal and insist on an amendment which could come into effect quickly, in draft form.
