Tricolour masthead light

[davidwf]

I'm taking delivery of a new yacht which does not have a tricolour at the mast head. Instead it has an Anchor light, Steaming light and red green and white nav lights fitted low down.

Question is should I bother to fit a Tricolour, I jknow the tricolour uses less power which as far as I can tell is its main advantage. What do you think?

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[peterk]

hi d.,

I would -
apart from the reduced current draw:
your running(navigation) lights will be visible for a much greater
distance. Keep the anchor(some tri colors incorporate that one)
and steaming lights.


...peter, www.juprowa.com/kittel



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[petery]

..and keep your port & stbd lights

.. as you cannot use your tricolour light when motor sailing - you must use your 'low down' port and stbd,stern steaming - current draw is obviously no problem when the motor's on.

I was about to scrap my 'low down' lights until a post on this forum pointed me to the relevant section of the col regs

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[gus]

If you fit a tricolour then wire it up with a two-way switch connected on the other side to your low-down nav lights. That way you cannot have both sets on at the same time as many do. If you have your steaming light switch powered from the output/low-down side of the two-way switch, then your steaming light will only work when the appropriate low-down lights are on, which is what it should be.

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[petery]

what a simple, clever idea nm

..

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[oldsaltoz]

G'day David,

The set up you have meets the regulations and is reasonably safe, given this I think I would run with it and review the situation when the is removed or some other opportunity presents itself.

The double switching suggested by 'Gus' is excellent advice also, but you don't need to do it right now IMHO.






<hr width=100% size=1>Andavagoodweekend, Old Salt Oz /forums/images/icons/cool.gif

 

[jimi]

The visibility in reality in a small craft is constrained by the brightness, not the height of the light. I would argue that a yacht is more visible when using its 'proper' navigation lights and its aspect more easily judged. IMHO the only reason for a tricolour is the reduced current draw through the use of a single bulb.

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[DerrickHigton]

Bernard Hayman, ex Editor of Yachting World, was largely responsible for the adoption of the tricolour light, back in the '70s. In later life he came to realise that, for all their power economy benefits, they could be hazardous.

Talk to any ship's captain and he will tell you that, anywhere near shore lights, tricolours disappear into the background. I never use my tricolour now unless more than ten miles off-shore.

Similarly, in close quarters situations, tricolours head skywards and disappear from the field of view of nearby helmsmen. I have experienced a nearly disasterous collision due to an inexperienced helmsman 'losing' another boat on close approach.

Having been very enthusiastic about tricolours when they were introduced, I now believe they are potentially dangerous.

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[bedouin]

Do check the power benefits carefully before installing one - after all your standard nav lights are not that inefficient.

On my boat for example, the three "side lights" (port, starboard and stern) each have 10W bulbs, making a total of 30W - whereas the commonly available Tricolour takes a 25W bulb - only a 5W saving. In fact if you have a combined port/starboard light you could even find the tricolour to consume more power.

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[Robin]

The range of the light will improve with the wattage of the bulb, so to get the same range from the deck level lights would need these to have 25w bulbs also. The true comparitive saving is therefore 50w (35w if the white stern light is 10w), another 25w could be saved by a single bicolour. All ways though the Tri wins on consumption under sail, because of it's height it will also win on visible range and consistant visibility in waves.

The limitation as pointed out elsewhere is at close quarters when it can confuse, against shore lights either can be lost, just depends on the relative positions from your viewpoint. In the same way ship's lights can be 'lost' amongst their deck lights, especially passenger vessels and fishing boats. Some of the ferries have video games rooms or such like with all sorts of coloured lights shining out to confuse.

Personally we use the Tricolour under sail at sea and deck level lights in harbour when in all probability the engine has gone on anyway. Close quarters situations at sea need care in interpretation of distance, with ships I doubt they look much anyway with mark 1 eyeballs unless the radar alarm went first.

What I do find irritating is the green/white/green or red/white/red or green/red over white that are all too often seen. I challenged one (nameless) friend and recent Yachtmaster passee on this when in company one night - he replied he liked to be seen.

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[snowleopard]

Wattage

worth pointing out that the visibility requirements dictate teh wattage of the bulb. effectively it means that boats over 12m loa must have 25 watt bulbs but those under 12m can get away with 10w.

i can't have a tricolour because of the rotating mast so am forced to use low level lights. i fitted a second set of lights for backup so now have a 10w set for economy and a 25w set for safety. at worrying times i switch both sets on!

incidentally the other thing that changes at 12m is the option to use an all-round white masthead instead of stern & steaming is only allowed under 12m.

i would like to fit LED red-over-green at the masthead, as soon as someone manufactures suitable lamps.

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[bedouin]

Not strictly correct - it depends on the construction of your nav light. If you have reflectors in your lights (as all do) then it is not unreasonable to expect 80-90% of the power of the bulb to be distributed in the visible sector, so the benefit from the Tricolour would be minimal. And for an under 12m boat with a bicolour port/starboard, the Tricolour could actually use more power.

I don't think height is a signficant issue in visible range when talking about sailing boats - the power limits the visible range to 1-2MN anyway, and at that range the difference between pulpit mounted and mast mounted lights is not important.

It does of course make a difference in terms of waves, so if the sea-state is moderate or above the tricolour has the advantage there.

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[Robin]

Re: Wattage

I'd forgotten the break point of 12m, and our boat is 12.3m - however I chose to put 25w bulbs in all except the anchor all round white light (never used as such, backup for stern + steam if required, even if not permitted above 12m).

We also carry a 1,500,000 candlepower rechargeable spotlight to light up the sails if required or to flash a hey you to the bridge as a very last resort. On the sails did get a 'OK OK OK we do see you, hold your course' over ch16 once so it can work.

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[Robin]

We are above 12m. I don't think we have reflectors in our bow lights etc and I changed a bulb only last weekend. Our lights are Hella and IMHO not very well made, I had to clean off the salt from INSIDE the lens and the terminals and bulb contacts are automotive, corrodable and rudimentary. We had Aquasignal on our previous boat and have this too for our Tri-white, not perfect but at least they had S/S contacts, also seem more waterproof, certainly don't remember seeing salt inside.

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[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

Re: Wattage

i would like to fit LED red-over-green at the masthead, as soon as someone manufactures suitable lamps.

When you find one, please don't keep it to yourself. I do not like tri-lights personally, I always have trouble judging direction when the other boat is distant. I would like the red over green though to show I am sailing, I do have a spot and steaming light on the mast which when the spot is turned on will light up the genoa. I also don't like the idea of losing all your nav lights if one bulb blows, when sailing I can replace any of my lights at deck level, if my steaming light goes I can flick my anchor light on.

Last Sunday when approaching Pwllheli at dusk a guy had anchored in the aproaches to the harbour to do a little fishing. with his steaming lights on, I spent twenty minutes with bins trying to work out what the hell he was doing, should I have said something?

Oh and on the same rant, a good few weeks earlier I was steaming in and there where maybe 5 other yachts looking like they were on their way in, so I slowed, but still making on them, slowed more, bloody hell their anchored. I am usually pretty relaxed about anchor balls, but when you are anchoring in an entrance waiting for enough water to cross the bar, please show you are anchored, us who do not need so much water can get in, but some of us start hanging back a way off to prevent congestion.

This is not directed at anyone in particular, but for the first time I realised how important these indictators can be, either that or don't anchor so it looks like you are on your way in.

Rant over!

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