With the Courts, RYA, yachting press etc. carrying out invetigations into the efficiency of our yacht nav' lights post Ouzo isn't it time great strides were made as regards the effectiveness of our lights, and I don't just mean new lenses etc. One Mag' has come up with reports that Light Emitting Diodes are only marginally better than standard bulbs as regards their visible light displayed, it leaves me concerned that progress is a little slow.
LED's certainly have other extremely valuable advantages e.g. reliability and low current demands etc, but as I have always experienced and believed, the cyclist on a wet dark night that has a flashing or strobe type front and rear light, is far easier to pick out for the motorist than the cyclists who have traditional lights.
The fast flashing light theory was confirmed by one magazine as they tested the LED and standard nav' bulb from a foreshore. The foreshore also had street lights and cars indicators close by. The cars indicators standing out easily where the nav' lights on test were less evident. Many of us will have experienced this.
From the sea it is occassionally difficult to make out the difference between the lights of a town and its seafront to those of boats, ships and lights for pilotage. So without the joys of a plotter and GPS, life can, on an inclement night, be very difficult for the navigator.
Why then canYachts not adopt an all round white strobe light that is attached to show above the masthead with the accepted and legally required nav' lights? If I adopted this strobe light and had an accident it would no doubt at present, negate any insuranse claim that I may make as the result of a collision.
Is there any way such a consideration may be put to the masses of yacht and small boat skippers , so that they/we may lobby those who control the Reg's? Please 'blog' the merits or otherwise of this on the Forum and perhaps then, if we have a concensus on a solution, we get lobbying going.
On a slightly different tack.............When out at night in shipping areas I always show my steaming light as well as my nav' lights as an aid to being noticed. The problem with this is that the foresail reflects back some of the light and harms ones night vision. However, the light through the sail is quite effective too for other craft to see. The strobe at the topmost point with a wide circular plate at its base, screening the lower parts of the yacht from its beam, would mean that it would perhaps interfere less with night vision. Scotty
I fully agree, it is noticeable that a lot of US Yachts do have flashing high intensity masthead strobe lights (very similar to the ones used by aircraft) and they are highly visible at far greater distances.
I cannot see how the Rules of the Road seem to permit US Yachts to do this and yet not allow us to do the same? Curious!
If you have ever raced off-shore in a fairly large fleet at night, it is noticeable how poor the normal nav lights really are, until one is at very close quarters, say 1/2 mile! One thing that makes yachts very visible in these circumstances, is when you see a boat shine a torch on its sails at fairly nregular intervals to aid trimming!
I have found over the years that when I see a ship looking as if it is going to come a bit close, I train a couple of torches on my sails this always seems to cause the ship to alter course away from me. So through experience, I think illuminating oneself esp ones sails, is far more effective than just relying on a ships bridge to see a pin-prick of coloured light.
Having had a very good browse, it is clear these lights are not supposed to be used in normal circumstances only as follows
A) To draw attention to oneself in inland waterways (I guess that means when it looks as if someone else is getting too close
B) as an extra light when one is the towed or being pushed vessel
All other uses seem to be prohibited.
Having now read the US Coastguard Rules & regs - and they are very well presented, written etc (far better & clearer than anything I've ever seen anywhere else) I'm jolly glad I live in Europe!
It seems a $5000 fine and 6 years in prison is the norm for breaking the rules!
David,i wondered what you would make of it. It makes you think you should really brush up on these Reg's if you find yourself in American waters.
I'm also dissapointed that no other responses have come back to this blog, positive or otherwise. Maybe fewer yachtees than we think venture out in the dark in busy shipping areas?
I know, when the weather is grim and the wind is F5-7 and getting dark, then I have been the only yacht i could see in the Solent on a couple of occassions. Often I have been able to count only a dozen as far as the eye could see in such conditions.
Also crossing the Channel several times recently I have rarely seen another yacht at night so perhaps the need is for the very small minority. However, as i mention in another blog, what price safety?
If the Ouzo had a white strobe at the masthead would we be having this discussion? Scotty
We once nearly hit another yacht in mid Channel at night. We had picked up its tiny pinpricks of light, but thought it was a lot further away than it was, because they were so dim - about the strength of a cigarette end. Since the Ouzo report was published we have wondered if they were UV decayed and crazed as described by the MAIB. It was certainly scary. However, we just had time to take avoiding action when we realised how close he was!
In open sea, in good visibility, the required lights, in good working order, work extremely well. You can see exactly what another vessel is doing from the lights it is showing, and who should be standing on and who should be giving way. (Although we tend to take evasive action in any case, to avoid any close quarters situations: you never know how good the watch-keeping is on the other vessel, power or sail, leisure or commercial! And that applies particularly to fishing vessels, which quite often are not displaying the right lights anyway!)
The real problem is when there is a back scatter of light from the land, especially when approaching harbour. The entrance to Harwich/Felixstowe is a particular nightmare, with the working lights on the dock cranes obliterating all the nav aids, never mind your night vision. Huge ships under way disappear into the fairground display, never mind small yachts. I'm not sure that in these circumstances even a flashing strobe would be much help.
But I'm all in favour of anything that reduces risk. As for LEDs, they seem to be getting both more powerful and less expensive by the minute, as the technology develops. I think it will soon be possible to buy "bulbs" many times more powerful than conventional incandescent lamps, which go straight into existing light fittings. They will have the dual advantage of shining more brightly and saving battery power, and I think there will be no shortage of takers.
Cathy agree entirely, esp avout the background lights in harbour areas. I tend to use my lower nav lights rather than the tricolour in these circumstances. From my observations in very busy waters the tricolout lights just blend in whereas lower lights do seem to be more noticeable.
I have changed most of my lights to LED's and am very happy with the performance and light output from latest SMT types now being used. No more worries about the anchor light being left on with current draws of 150mA.
Many "bulbs" are now available as direct replacements for saloon etc.
Hi Geo. Thanks for that. I will definitely follow up as the halogen downlighters in our saloon, while excellent on shore power, are an absolute no-no on long passages as a) they are too bright and b) they use too much juice. I hadn't realised "plug and play" replacement LEDs were available, and will certainly give them a try. Thank you again.
In a routine check two years ago I realised that my bow nav light, which was only a few years old, 4 at most, was emitting the wrong colour. The green lens had faded and was almost white. I replaced the whole unit.
My masthead light has had a new lens some years ago but the tricolour bulb was highly unreliable and seemed to be more often off than on. On a couple of long overnight passages we had to either use the nav lights or our masthead white, not ideal but better than nothing with no other shipping in sight.
Following good writeups in the yachting press we have now bought a Lopolight tricolour plus anchor. It appears to be very well made, will be totally watertight if assembled correctly, and gives good light at all expected angles of heel. I have yet to fit it but I look forward to long life from it.
I have changed all my nav lights to LEDs and a good few of my cabin lights (I still have Fluorescence's, but don't use them very much) I believe that the LEDs give off a much brighter light and, as one of the earlier contributors mentioned, are more reliable, draw very little current and last a lot longer. I bought some through Ebay and some from Ultra LEDS. If you google that they have a comprehensive web site.
There has been an enormous amount of discussion on the subject of LED replacements for incandescent bulbs. One of the problems is that LEDs do not have the same colour spectrum as an incandescent bulb, so when viewed through the coloured lens the LED is not the correct colour. The colours are quite strictly defined in International regulations, so you could technically be illegal. Some of the LEDs supplied by the internet companies can produce some very strange colours when viewed through standard lenses, such as blue whites, brown greens and very dark reds.
The other problem is that many standard LEDs have a sharp cutoff at quite low angles, so that at, say, 20 degrees of heel, you may only be emitting less than 50% of the light in a horizontal direction. PBO magazine tested LEDs quite recently and some bulb replacements came out very poorly in the inclination tests. Their word was 'disappointing'.
The big advantage of buying the purpose built items, such as Aqua Signal, Lopolight, Hella, is that they are far more robust than an LED bulb, have properly corrected colours and emit equally whether upright or heeled to 25 degrees.
Vyv Cox is absolutely correct about the purpose built units advantages and the law for Nav lights.
The characteristics of some types of LED are unsuitable for Nav lights.
Thats why I have only used the SMT cluster type LED replacement for the anchor light, so far.
The new generation of LED's available recently in various warm or cool colours are a huge improvement over older types used down below in saloon etc however and also red night lights are much more reliable and easy to use.
I replaced my sidelights and sternlight with Aquasignal LED units last year. They really are bright! It wasn't so much for the lower power consumption (mine is a motor boat) but for the fact that they were totally sealed and had something like a 10,000 hour life expectancy.
I'll change the other nav lights in time. Also gather that you can now get LED repaacements for interior light bulbs in both white and red. I have those switchable white / red interior lights which I like but the red filament bulbs that come with them are a but iffy; some give a decent red light but some give off a pink light which doesn't do much for your night vision if someone turns one on.
I have standard Lazilas lights fitted to the boat and make sure I have good wattage bulbs fitted - all 10W - despite the amps drain on system.
But I have one means of highlighting my boat that I feel is worth the "breaking IRPCS" ... a powerful beam-gun flashlight that is charged from 12v and 240V. Mine is 1 million power ... is kept close at hand in cockpit for shining on sails etc.
Having been an OOW on merchant ships - the biggest factor for me is to be SEEN ... the rules about port to port / end on etc. take second place to being seen as EARLY AS POSSIBLE. The speed of an average merchant vessel is far higher than an average yacht (excepting MOBO's of course - but then they are far more able to get out of the way !) - so which heading they have relative to ship is often not so critical. Being seen early is !
I have to admit to not being so happy that OUZO is being quoted in start post - as nothing concrete / decided came out of that investigation, only a lot of suposition and specualtion - that got picked up by many as gospel. Even the MCA itself stated clearly in it's report that it was not basis for legal use.
Hi Luther, the only reason Ouzo is quoted is that the MAIB report into her loss included stern warnings about nav lights in general. That was the starting point for this forum. It has nothing to do with what may or may not have actually happened to the Ouzo.
I( think that you understand what I mean though ... too many times the name OUZO is included in conversations seemingly to make a point. It actually reduces OUZO's impact on yachting minds when it's the "in-thing" to quote.
Yes the MAIB mentioned many things - but being in the Marine Industry, I am disapointed in the MAIB for producing a report of many pages with majority circumstantial and supposed data. Filling pages about tests on spectacles and night vision did nothing for credence in my opinion.
Nav lights will always be limited by what the yacht can power. LED's may appear to be an answer to get more for your amps. But already there are reports of colours not quite correct - the blue tint to some .... whether they comply with regs for focal path etc. I have 2 batterys on board totalling about 160 A/Hrs. I have to take regard to starting engine and drain on them. Means I have a useable ~ 40 A/hrs out of each if lucky. I would rather use it being seen than be miserly with my lights. I have looked at LED's in use ... compared to my standard Festoon equipped lights. I am yet to be convinced that they are as bright and clean in colour.
Sorry if my opinion grates with some .. but we are all entitled to our opinion. OUZO was lost for some reason that still has yet to be found. It is most unlikely that it will ever be resolved unless the yacht is actually found. People will speculate and some will even take excerpts from MAIB report and believe it as gospel.
