Tricolor expensive

[Cobra25]

Hi I'm thinking about putting a tricolor on . The all red or all green or all white can be had for a fiver each but when you want all three (a tricolor) the price rockets to £100. Any thoughts please. Thanks for everybody's help on other posts

 

[snowleopard]

i think the answer is that the cheap plastic 10w one's aren't made as a tricolor. probably a good thing too.

i have a set of the cheap ones (10w) for sailing and a duplicate set of stainless 25w ones for motoring/backup. the cheap ones get through bulbs regularly and the green has faded to white. you wouldn't want that up the mast.

 

[johna]

Snowleopard is right I had a cheaper version of the tricolour on the top of my mast at one time and from new it was more white than green. This is really dangerous as a white light would indicate stern thus moving in the same direction or away whereas green indicates moving across or towards you.

 

[Joe_Cole]

Lalizas do a 10w one, cost about £11.00.

I haven't got round to fitting it yet but it is a bit small. I think I will wire it up and have a look from a distance before I use it. I hope it's OK, the battery saving and extra visibilty because of the height appeals to me.

 

[gorb]

Think you'll find that the expensive version has a fancy expensive long life bulb in it. You want to climb the mast every time the bulb fails? Not a problem for low level single colours.

Gorb

 

[bruce]

perko combo masthead/all round light, about $40.00, is a white light, but a set of red/green lens for it can be purchased from perco, cost about $16.00, take the light apart and the base is marked red/green for the other lens.

 

[sailorman]

Aqua signal best Perko ?????

 

[pappaecho]

I am seriously thinking about red/white /green LED bulbs for the masthead on the grounds that they will see the life of the boats off. If one or two LEDs goes there is still another 20 odd left and working in the array, and they use 1/10th the power of a tungsten bulb. If the green lens fades to white - put a green led bulb in!

 

[bruce]

not that simple, but they are on the market, and very expensive...led projects light only out the end of bulb so groups must be mounted pointing outward to give wide angle of light needed.

 

[Talbot]

If buying from new, I would strongly recommend that you consider an LED version for just a tad more money - see here

 

[VicMallows]

Thanks for that link. Had wondered on cost of proper marine ones. I note Chi Hbr are changing to solar powered LED lights on Nav Marks.

Vic

 

[marina95]

[ QUOTE ]
If buying from new, I would strongly recommend that you consider an LED version for just a tad more money - see =http://www.orcagreen.com/TriAnchor.cfm]here

[/ QUOTE ]

Can anyone see the downside of using a 15mm bayonet white led cluster in place of the 25 watt filament bulb in my new Aqua Signal 40 series Tricolour that I will be fitting?

http://www.ultraleds.com have some great prices.

No connection etc...

 

[William_H]

Re: LED on nav lights

LEDs gain their brightness from a magnifying lens on the tip. This gives a bright light at quite a small angle. For a Nav Mark this is fine as light is required at a narrow anfgle to the horizon and a series of LED around the portion of the compass requiring light. However when your yacht leans over the narrow beam at the horizon would not be adequate so you need another 2 series of LED pointing up and down to allow for heel hence LED tricolour use a lot of LEDs are expensive and I still doubt that they will cover the horizon on all angles of heel. I have never seen a commercial tricoloutr LED but give me incandescant nav light any day preferably on the deck level so I can repair it easily. perhaps a strobe light on the mast head if you are really concerned.
I do a lot of night racing on an estuary (had a lovely race last night for 3 hrs) I find that the mast head light is easier to miss than deck level lights when viewed from my tiny boat. I guess a ship officer would be looking for lights up higher but I have often thought "that yacht has no lights". Ah there are the lights up the tree. Anyway just another opinion perhaps contrary to many others good luck will

 

[Sgeir]

Had a look into LEDs etc a while ago, but seem to recall that the tricolour has to have something like a 25W bulb as a legal requirement.

Or am I confused? Again.

it is late at night and I'll need to get the paraffin out.

 

[john_morris_uk]

The legal requirement is the 'range of visibility' and the colour. The 25 watt bulb is usually calculated as producing a bright enough light to be visible over the required range as a yacht tricolour.

One of the significant advances in Nav Lights was when the vertical filament bulb was developed to the point where the 'cut off' of the Tricolour became much more defined. A LED tricolour would have to be designed in a slightly different way with 'cut off blinds' internally to ensure the correct lights show over the correct sectors. This would still leave the problem pointed out by others of visibility at various angles of heel.

The vertical filament bulb was seen as an advance because notwithstanding the fact that oil lights that were used before electrical lighting became the norm, previously the correct sectors could only be defined using separate port, starboard and stern lights with the associated lighting boards that went with them.

 

[Joe_Cole]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If buying from new, I would strongly recommend that you consider an LED version for just a tad more money - see here]=http://www.orcagreen.com/TriAnchor.cfm]here

[/ QUOTE ]

Can anyone see the downside of using a 15mm bayonet white led cluster in place of the 25 watt filament bulb in my new Aqua Signal 40 series Tricolour that I will be fitting?

http://www.ultraleds.com have some great prices.

No connection etc...

[/ QUOTE ]

I've played around with these LED's and they are excellent; but not for navigation lights. They are good as spotlights and are therefore useful in torches, car lights, bicycle lights, etc. On a boat they are good for spotlights down below or in torches.

I have looked at making up a cluster of LED's for navigation light. The LED's I got were high intensity, but the bright light was projected within a 30degree angle. This meant that to get a light which was visible all round I would have needed 12 LED's (all mounted in a circle, pointing out) However a single ring of lights would still only be visible over 30 degrees horizontally so at least two rings (ie 24 LED's in totally) or even 3 rings would have been needed. Technically it's perfectly possible, though it would be a bit fiddly and bulky for home construction.

A bigger problem is to get the colour of the light right. The Col Regs define the colour spectrum quite accurately and I must admit that I couldn't see a way of achieving it. Having said that I wouldn't feel too "precious" about getting the colour of the light right; but in the end it was all a bit too laborious to carry on with!

 

[snowleopard]

[ QUOTE ]
for just a tad more money

[/ QUOTE ]

beg your pardon???

$239 v £10 isn't a 'tad' more in my book.

i'd love to change to LED nav lights as my rotating mast precludes a tricolour so current drain is a serious factor but the costs are just too high right now.

 

[FullCircle]

The Lalizas model is the 12M and is certified to conform for vessels under 12 metres, i.e 2 miles. It is small, but meets the regs just the same. The 20M rockets in price to about 45 quid.
I have a 12M fitted to my Jouet 680. Buy the boat and I will throw in the lamp for free /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Talbot]

depends on your definition of tad. I dont have a spare £10 at the moment so an extra £100 is no less affordable! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Birdseye]

Re: LED on nav lights

[ QUOTE ]

I do a lot of night racing on an estuary (had a lovely race last night for 3 hrs) I find that the mast head light is easier to miss than deck level lights when viewed from my tiny boat. I guess a ship officer would be looking for lights up higher but I have often thought "that yacht has no lights". Ah there are the lights up the tree. Anyway just another opinion perhaps contrary to many others good luck will

[/ QUOTE ]

Had this same discussion with the master of the Plymouth Bilbao ferry and one plea he made was to use deck level nav lights in harbour entrances etc. Apparently, masthead tricolours are really difficult to spot because they are often in direct line with shore lights when looking from the bridge. deck level lights can be spotted against a background of dark water,