What is cheapest way to have Not Under Command lights?

tudorsailor said:
I think I may have found the answer. http://www.lifegear.com/glow-sticks-1/glow-stick Red glow sticks that can be hoisted on the flag halyard. Just bought one from eBay. Will report back as to how bright it is.


TS
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OK Now recieved the GlowStick. Seems good value for money. Easily seen at the end of the garden! It might not meet colregs to be visible at a mile but I think it will be visible at night many hundreds of metres away, so better than nothing. I think I will get a green one to use with the red on the dinghy

TudorSailor
 
tudorsailor said:
When our yacht was chartered out in Spain, the local rules stated that we had to have 2 red lights on board to use to indicate NUC. My local man lent me some lights to be on board when we were inspected, but I did not have the as a permanent item.

Now the yacht is no longer coded. However I wonder if it might be a good idea to have a couple of red lights strung together to make NUC and hope I never have to use them.

Would a couple of LED red lights work? Any suggestions as to what to use?

Thanks

TudorSailor
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I have just received some sample LED matrices 8 X 8 for the bottom light of my red over green YAPP.

They are bicolour so would also do red over red. They are patently not water proof so need some work but absurdly cheap. Source was Oomlout.

I will report.
 
tudorsailor said:
OK Now recieved the GlowStick. Seems good value for money. Easily seen at the end of the garden! It might not meet colregs to be visible at a mile but I think it will be visible at night many hundreds of metres away, so better than nothing. I think I will get a green one to use with the red on the dinghy

TudorSailor
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their web site says "Auto off in 1 hour": can that be overridden (switch, etc?) or one has to stay awake all night to hourly turn them on again?
 
Graham_Wright said:
If your vessel is Not Under Command, should you be asleep?:confused:
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If we put aside mechanical failures, I am thinking about singlehanding: say after two days without sleep, those might possibly be "exceptional circumstances" causing one to collapse asleep and be "unable to keep out of the way of another vessel" as stated by the rule.
I think in that case it would be better to heave to and show NUC lights than continue under pilot with normal navigation lights.
I know singlehanding is a can of worms in terms of rules, esp vs "lookout at all times", but for the moment it is not forbidden to sail alone, so sleep deprivation might possibly considered as an "exceptional circumstance" ? I do not have the answer, simply conjecturing.


FWIW, there is an IMO document about a court case where the whole crew of a fishing boat put on NUC lights and all went to watch tv, no one left on lookout, there was a collision and IIRC they were not considered guilty. Sorry I cannot remember the exact details but will try and find it, anyway I remember getting the impression that there was *a lot* of latitude in determining what could be considered NUC and what not.
 
I've done Melbourne to Geraldton via Darwin, single handed. Several 3+ day stretches. Survived by dozing in cockpit with a loud alarm, 10min max, per hour. Only in the remote north and west coasts - never on the busier east coast. Checked on VHF each nap. I had the boat reefed right down. I showed NUC lights at first but got lazy. With practice it's easy to go one overnight without sleep but very hard at first. Never accidentally slept. In open ocean far less risk if you sleep longer (but many of you would have to go a long way to find that). Andrew
 
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