The importance of having an anchor light

[Neeves]

The advantage of Geems option is that if you are using the 360 degree in all directions and it is thus a deck and anchor light - you are seen for what you are (as your deck is illuminated) and can walk along the deck to check whatever it is that is annoying you (and if its LED uses no power).

Using the cabin lights as an anchor light does not actually suggest you are at anchor. We once passed a yacht illuminated as such (cabin lights only) in 21m of water (with shallow water ahead). He was not at anchor - he had tripped his anchor and was drifting away from the anchorage (owner on shore having a beer).

If you are anchored in a normal anchorage used by pleasure yachts even if you were to use both, masthead and foretriangle) simultaneously you would not be mistaken for anything else - the water would be too shallow and the location too small.

I have wondered - there are requirements on what to use, all round light in foretriangle and the mast head all round - is there a
requirement that you should only use one or can you actually use both.

Jonathan

 

[C08]

If they bother to post it with a position why not also say nw of wootoon creek?

 

[capnsensible]

When enjoying cocktails and live music up at Shirley's Heights, one can hardly fail to be impressed with the dozens of yachts helpfully indicating their positions with spreader lights plus of course the masthead red to warn aircraft.

Sigh. ?

 

[sarabande]

IIRC if two anchor lights are shown, the second one must be aft and lower than the for'd one. Thus if a mast head light is used, the second light must be near the stern. Which begs the question, are the bows of a boat still "for'd" if you are anchored by the stern ?

I am really not fond of boats either at anchor or under way using a white strobe which try and imitate seaplanes taxying .

 

[john_morris_uk]

When enjoying cocktails and live music up at Shirley's Heights, one can hardly fail to be impressed with the dozens of yachts helpfully indicating their positions with spreader lights plus of course the masthead red to warn aircraft.

Sigh. ?

But surely red lights at the masthead is a special signal?

It says ‘look at how big I am’.

The alternative interpretation (if you are viewing the vessel from port f’wd) is ‘Look what a dick I am with my Tricolour left on.”

 

[Neeves]

We were chastised once by the skipper, Captain, of a bulk fuel carrier for only displaying a masthead green , they could not see the red nor stern white. He had calculated our speed.

We were having a champagne run at a consistent 10 knots. He had left Melbourne on his way to Sydney, we were crossing Bass Strait on our way to NW Tasmania.

He wanted us to show a steaming light.

More worrying - when we advised we were a sailing yacht he did not believe us - and came to have a look. He was doing about 15 knots and we closed rapidly. We played our spotlight on the sails - and he humbly apologised. We had been becoming increasingly nervous.

Don't assume people know what your lights actually represent - just make sure you can be seen

Jonathan

 

[JumbleDuck]

Yes, until your insurer reduces a claim on the basis of contributory negligence, regardless of circumstances, as you did not comply with IRPCS.

Bingo! Twelve posts in and his insurance is invalidated. Doesn't normally take that long.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Doing that will be much more effective than adding another star in the sky anyway.

A light at my masthead is at roughly the same height as a light halfway up the forestay of a Bavaria 37.

 

[capnsensible]

But surely red lights at the masthead is a special signal?

It says ‘look at how big I am’.

The alternative interpretation (if you are viewing the vessel from port f’wd) is ‘Look what a dick I am with my Tricolour left on.”

We have always called it the 'self importance' light. Mind you, if I owned a yacht that big, I'd have two.

More mundanely, I often used to see people getting a tad confused with vessels anchored in Gib Bay bunkering. Some m/vs of as big as it gets size might have the masthead red flashing too.

 

[capnsensible]

Bingo! Twelve posts in and his insurance is invalidated.

Is it?

 

[Graham376]

IIRC if two anchor lights are shown, the second one must be aft and lower than the for'd one. Thus if a mast head light is used, the second light must be near the stern.

That's what the regs say but, it's also acceptable to use as many deck/working lights as you want. I have a masthead light but only there as a backup, prefer one in the fore triangle which also has some downlighters to light some of the deck.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Is it?

Well, no, but when ever somebody asks about "X" somebody else says "X will invalidate your insurance". It's just a matter of how long it takes.

 

[capnsensible]

Well, no, but when ever somebody asks about "X" somebody else says "X will invalidate your insurance". It's just a matter of how long it takes.

But how do you know it isn't?

 

[steve yates]

The most important reason for having an anchor light is so you can find your boat rowing back from the pub pissed.

 

[Deleted member 478]

The most important reason for having an anchor light is so you can find your boat rowing back from the pub pissed.

... the words of the experienced

 

[RupertW]

The most important reason for having an anchor light is so you can find your boat rowing back from the pub pissed.

That’s why we have a line of B&Q little LED garden lights making an arch at the back of the Bimini.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The most important reason for having an anchor light is so you can find your boat rowing back from the pub pissed.

I'm TT, but that's one reason I use a hurricane lamp ... nobody else has one so I can always easily spot my boat.

Many childhood summer holidays were spent at Port Bannatyne and it was always fun to listen out of the window at 11pm on the Glasgow Fair Friday and hear a hundred pished crews trying to work out where they had anchored ready for the Tobermory Race. On one memorable occasion I spent that night sleeping in the family boat on her mooring right in the middle of the mayhem. Most entertaining.

 

[steve yates]

... the words of the experienced

I spent an hour quartering the sea off Aultbea in the pitch black after leaving the pub at closing time a few years ago before I bumped into my boat. It had been daylight when I left the boat and hadn't even thought about a light. Never made that mistake again

 

[Elessar]

Exact indeed. In fact the precision of that position is unnecessarily exact. I make it to within ± 0.0001 NM, i.e. around 0.2 metres.

Precise and useless.
Distance and bearing or another suitable descriptor should always be quoted along with a lat/long IMO.

 

[Giblets]

Precise and useless.
Distance and bearing or another suitable descriptor should always be quoted along with a lat/long IMO.

How about a bearing 116 degrees from Wooton Beacon at a distance of 0.45nm.