underwater light corrosion

[SolentPhill]

Advice please..

I took my boat out of the water yesterday for a over night check as one of the underwater lights (put in Feb this year) is not working, I was worried in case a problem with it.

When it came out the outside of the light was eaten and hardly anything left of the ali cover and the light had perished. I had a spare to put in and I will do that today before it goes back in, my question is, to avoid this happening again can I link the back of the light casing to the earth of the boat to stop this.

Thanks

Phill

 

[jfm]

Advice please..

I took my boat out of the water yesterday for a over night check as one of the underwater lights (put in Feb this year) is not working, I was worried in case a problem with it.

When it came out the outside of the light was eaten and hardly anything left of the ali cover and the light had perished. I had a spare to put in and I will do that today before it goes back in, my question is, to avoid this happening again can I link the back of the light casing to the earth of the boat to stop this.

Thanks

Phill

Yes, the body of the light MUST be connected electrically to the boat's zinc anodes. Aluminium is a poor material, they should be aluminium bronze. Be sure to use very thick electrical cable to make the connection, eg 8mm sq kinda thing

Best answer would be to swap the lights for www.lumishore.com - the best u/w lights in the world bar none. And beautifully made in aluminium bronze

 

[Searush]

Or you could chuck them away & fill the holes to make your boat a lot more seaworthy & sensible. Why do you feel the need to spend money annoying fish?

Sorry, but underwater lights are the silliest, most pointless, bit of stupid bling I have ever heard of. They just make me laugh at anyone being conned into buying them. Do you also illuminate the underside of your car & have a bootfull of huge speakers?

Stomps off grumpily dripping across the patio;

But perhaps you don't know the picture?

 

[jfm]

How bigotted of you Searush, as Gordon Brown would say . Each to their own. You clearly have not had the fun of swimming at midnight in calm warm seas lit up turquoise, with everyone else in the anchorage jumping in too and having a right laugh till 2am. As for annoying the fish, I don't think they do, but in any case what a convenient place you choose to draw the line. I mean, it's ok for you to annoy fish with your propeller, but it's not ok for others to annoy them with lights.

 

[DAKA]

Perhaps searush hasnt benefited from actually seeing such illuminations first hand.

I was enthralled with a Flybridge illuminating Bembridge a few years ago, the fish were certainly not annoyed , they were swimming round in the lights clearly enjoying themselves , the ittle smiley faces were just so cute.

I can also confirm that despite the water not being that warm in Bembridge there were undoubtedly many still having a right laugh until early hours

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

How bigotted of you Searush, as Gordon Brown would say . Each to their own. You clearly have not had the fun of swimming at midnight in calm warm seas lit up turquoise, with everyone else in the anchorage jumping in too and having a right laugh till 2am. As for annoying the fish, I don't think they do, but in any case what a convenient place you choose to draw the line. I mean, it's ok for you to annoy fish with your propeller, but it's not ok for others to annoy them with lights.

Jfm, (and with apologies to op for fred rift) from your experience what's the best (single) colour light for wake illumination under way, is it just good ol white?

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[jfm]

Jfm, (and with apologies to op for fred rift) from your experience what's the best (single) colour light for wake illumination under way, is it just good ol white?

Cheers
Jimmy

Tricky one Jimmy. If I were getting single colour, I would definitely get blue (or green, if that floats your boat). White looks fine if the water is clean, and when you're underway it can be clean or it can be Bristol Channel-ish - depends where the boat is. In most ports the water isn't that clean, including Med ports for sure. So, imho, white doesn't look great

If I were ordering single colour I'd get blue. If you're being OCD (ahem Jimmy...) you'll notice that the blue most LEDs are made in is the primary colour blue, which is a tiny bit darker than perfect, but at least it doesn't show brown in dirty water

The best single colour imho is light blue/turquoise/cyan. Looks stunning and makes the water like a swimming pool. But no-one makes a cyan high power LED, so the only way to get cyan is to have a white light source and a cyan filter (which, engineering-wise is just stupid) or an RGB array (ie Lumishore) and mix cyan, which is a mix of white (R+G+B) and some extra blue

See three pix below. First one is white, in Essex marina, ie brown. Second is primary blue. Third is cyan produced by an RGB array, which imho is the nicest colour for swimming in, and the tender to the right is primary-colour blue LED. You'll see that the single-colour blue LEDs on the tender aren't that much darker than the cyan, so I'm being very fussy in saying the single colour blues are a bit dark. They're perfectly ok really. Main thing of course is to get lots of lumens of light, else the whole thing fizzles out 3m from your transom, and the only light with enough lumens currently is Lumishore.

I'm trying to get six on transom of new boat, instead of Fairline's standard fit of 4x OceanLEDs. The OceanLEDs are just craap, imho, as bright as a tealight in a breeze. I'm waiting for FL to check and come back to me. I also want them nearer the waterline, where the 6 red blobs are in the pic below that I've given to FL

 

[DAKA]

Jfm, (and with apologies to op for fred rift) from your experience what's the best (single) colour light for wake illumination under way, is it just good ol white?

Cheers
Jimmy

Just a bit of thread drift but if your looking for a coloured trail while under way, how about forgetting the wake and looking towards fuel additive to give your exhaust a tinge , you could add red to port and blue to starboard for a red arrows effect

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Just a bit of thread drift but if your looking for a coloured trail while under way, how about forgetting the wake and looking towards fuel additive to give your exhaust a tinge , you could add red to port and blue to starboard for a red arrows effect

What about the idea someone mentioned the other day about putting shampoo in your holding tank, and pumping out at speed? Can you get coloured shampoo? (Anyone who's met me will know why I don't know the answer to this question...)

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[hlb]

You can get coloured drain dye for tracing water. I've though of filling the holding tank with red, then another colour in the sinks. It could look quite spectacular!!

 

[oldgit]

Very sad about those lights.

"How bigotted of you Searush"
Perhaps,but heres a better argument.As a keen amateur astronomer would like to point out that the night sky is slowly disappearing bit by bit due to light pollution from unshielded and poorly directed light sources each little addition,even your watt or two is adding to the mix.
It would be difficult the find a more pointless and wasteful source of light than that shown in the pictures.Poss acceptable in harbour with all the other lights around but surely not in some quiet bay.
Why would you wish the destroy the magic of the stars especially from some of the wonderful dark anchorages down where you boat.

 

[buster3]

I had trim tab lights on my boat found them great to use and fun to

 

[jfm]

"How bigotted of you Searush"
Perhaps,but heres a better argument.As a keen amateur astronomer would like to point out that the night sky is slowly disappearing bit by bit due to light pollution from unshielded and poorly directed light sources each little addition,even your watt or two is adding to the mix.
It would be difficult the find a more pointless and wasteful source of light than that shown in the pictures.Poss acceptable in harbour with all the other lights around but surely not in some quiet bay.
Why would you wish the destroy the magic of the stars especially from some of the wonderful dark anchorages down where you boat.

Ah, but you kinda stopped your argument half way through, Oldgit, and left me on tenterhooks like the end of a Doctor Who episode

The night sky isn't disappearing or being destroyed, it's still there. But you are right that someone trying to observe it (via the visible spectrum) cannot see it as well (or at all) if there is lots of light pollution. And everyone's use of not-strictly-necessary lighting contributes to the pollution, whether someone going to the off-licence by car (with headlights) when they could have walked, or me and my underwater lights. Yup, I fully agree that.

But that's only half the argument. The other half is, why should the wishes of Mr A (the amateur astronomer wanting minimum light) prevail over the wishes of Mr B (the boater who wants a party night with his friends swimming in a turquoise-lit sea, on the same evening)? Clearly it isn't possible for both Mr A and Mr B to be happy that evening, as their wishes/happiness conflict. But why should Mr A's wishes prevail? Why is it that Mr B is dubbed "the polluter" when in fact he is merely doing exactly what Mr A is trying to do, namely pursue his hobby in search of fun? Unless you answer that question, your argument is only 50% done.

 

[SolentPhill]

Whilst I like the debate even from the miserable old gits, I still need a good answer to the original question.

Thanks JFM for the answer, can you tell me, I have the G/isolator on the boat with a green cable, and the yellow earth bar, do I run the 8mm cable from the green cable or the earth bar?

Thanks

 

[MapisM]

I also want them nearer the waterline

Just curious, why?
I would think that while swimming towards the boat, deeper lights should be less annoying to the swimmer eyes.
Besides, in the higher position, wouldn't they be covered by the swim platform whet it's lowered?

 

[jfm]

Whilst I like the debate even from the miserable old gits, I still need a good answer to the original question.

Thanks JFM for the answer, can you tell me, I have the G/isolator on the boat with a green cable, and the yellow earth bar, do I run the 8mm cable from the green cable or the earth bar?

Thanks

You want to connect them to the anodes. I'd expect there's a network of cabling (usually green, but doesn't have to be) connecting P brackets, shaft brushes, seacocks etc, to the anodes. If you tap into/daisy chain onto that cable network you'll be fine. The ultimate test is to connect the bodies of the uw lights to the anodes using a multimeter set to ohms - you should have zero or almost zero ohms resistance, just the same as if you touch the two probes of the multimeter together. (Hope that's clear - can be tricky on a forum!)

 

[AndieMac]

The anchorage may also have a large group of yachts, each displaying a masthead anchor light of significant brightness. I imagine summer in the Med is a busy place.

Maybe creating the swimming pool effect behind your boat on a balmy evening, being enjoyed by a group of scantily clad young ladies from other boats, may not be such a bad thing..........of course as long as they bring their own wine and cheese

 

[oldgit]

Mr Astronomers rather worrying solitary hobby does not have a detrimental effect on any other living soul and he can carry on without a single person being aware of his actions or even his existance.Mr Boater on the other hand, probably not even aware of concerns regards light pollution carries on regardless completely unaware of any consequences.
Unless of course,it is somewhat reluctantly pointed out to him by someone well aware of probably very robust reaction to any criticism whatever of the basic human right to light up their boat a la Blackpool seafront .

Maybe if this post does anything,perhaps it could suggest that the b*****y things are turned off when you go to bed and do not leave them blazing away all night.


"The anchorage may also have a large group of yachts, each displaying a masthead anchor light of significant brightness."

The anchor light is there for a reason and a single anchor light on 50 yachts would probably only be equal to a single display of the most tasteful and refined underwater blingyness

 

[SolentPhill]

You want to connect them to the anodes. I'd expect there's a network of cabling (usually green, but doesn't have to be) connecting P brackets, shaft brushes, seacocks etc, to the anodes. If you tap into/daisy chain onto that cable network you'll be fine. The ultimate test is to connect the bodies of the uw lights to the anodes using a multimeter set to ohms - you should have zero or almost zero ohms resistance, just the same as if you touch the two probes of the multimeter together. (Hope that's clear - can be tricky on a forum!)

Thanks

That makes sense, I dont have P brackets, I will need to hunt down something on the loop that has the green cable, I have seen the cable you mention. The boat is in the water now so to check using a meter is out. I think the cable goes through the transom somewhere so I can loop it to that.

will take a picture of them over weekend and post here to see if it ruins the view of the stars, Im hope the blue lights on my swim platform and all down the side and in the bow rail dont stop the view either.


Good info have a beer on me

 

[DAKA]

Mr Boater on the other hand, probably not even aware of concerns regards light pollution carries on regardless completely unaware of any consequences.

Maybe if this post does anything,perhaps it could suggest that the b*****y things are turned off when you go to bed and do not leave them blazing away all night.

My brand new Solar powered blue cockpit lights are due to be switched on next week for the first time and then will come on at dusk automatically even when we are not on the boat, the info says they are environmentally friendly, there are 20 in total plus 4 original high powered ones which do have an over ride switch.
The 20 solar powered ones are small and I am sure they cant be seen from space !