SailVessel headlights

Some international navigation rules prohibit such lighting on boats traveling the high seas. Imagine how nice it would be to be on an ocean route and have to facing vessels flashing their "high beams".
Singlehanders who sleep during the day and steer at night use them though, rules or no rules, and if a crazy idea that there is something ahead of you in the dark pops in your head (and it does the darker it is) you want to be able to test the hypothesis before the BANG!!
I've heard of some folks strapping a jetliner's landing light on the mast head.
The problem is that most sailing boats are not as steady as landing jets and those things will never illuminate what you want to see.
Also radar detectors for cars will pick up the frequencies of other vessels' radars, and the higher you mount them with a remote beeper the further out they will scan.
I like the dark and even the reflection of navigation lights bothers me.

 

to go with 'Longliner' on this (and others) try a big 'aldis' on a stick, as long as you stay under or behind the light your night vision should be OK! to the side or it behind you and your blind (and deserve to be)! Incidentaly if it is an 'aldis' you can also send messages with it if you can read the code! (good old sam morse's on that is)!

Can't quite figure trouty's comments on trawlers, if you've got a green and white up surely it says " for chrissake stay away I'm trawling and stuck to the bottom" or has it all changed (maybe you've finally taken me to heart after the other postings on the 'Future of Commercial fishing" and are trying to cut the odds by taking out a few trawlers?

As for singlehanders they are breaking the law anyway so they may as well go down for everything eh!

 

No it hasn't changed

No it hasn't changed...it's just that - not everyones an expert on night lights, shapes and sound signals these days!

Example...(from your own quote)...

A sailboat displays a all round white on top of the mast and the usual red / green, port starboard nav lights...

So - viewed...from the starboard side at a distance you see one white over green - no?

So - a trawler engaged in trawling?.. or a sailboat running as it should be?...or me in my powerboat running home after a night prawning, with spotlight abalze?

Confuzzling on the water at night when people make up their own rules!

Golden rule?

Works for me (so far!). ...

The big worry of course - is TWO boats with spotlights ablaze...

Is it a pair trawler, and do I go around, or is it two idiots with spotlights ablaze and I go between? Get it wrong and the pair trawler will eat you for breakfast!

Cheers!

 

Night vision is often cited as a reason for all sorts of mythology,
I find my eyes adjust reasonably well in around a minute from the full bright inside light to the outside dark, providing there is some light from the stars and or moon. On a black night you see nothing at all period. There is no night vision on a black night.

I dont think anyone will mistake projecting lights for Nav lights. All commercial shipping bristles with powerful fixed spotlights and deck lights. You just have to be able to switch them off if a situation develops where they could be confusing.

Every trawler you meet at night has a huge pwerful light projected over the stern and work deck at night as they trawl. You can still see their mast lights and port and stbd lights and they can see yours.

How much of the urban mythology regarding night vision at sea relates to the old military requirement of a blacked out vessels. All getting a bit old hat now on naval vessels with radar, night vision video and all the tracking electronics, the battle is run from the control room within the ship, no longer the bridge.

The issue here is being able to turn the lights on and off easily from the helm and projecting the lights so they do not remove your night vision. A light projected onto dark water from the bow will not blind you at all unless it shines on a white boat! To be blinded you need strong reflected light.

Michael Bailey

 

There is also hearing, for sailing vessels. If you are in total darkness and you know the sounds your boat makes under given conditions, the sound of waves and the wind, you can screen all this out to pick up the difference, it may be reflected sound from an obstacle, land nearby, the squeeks of an other vessel, etc etc.
For the novice it is always surprising, when a few miles of coast for the first time, how much darker everything is!
An other issue with vision in the dark is that even though you may have a spot light in the bow, you don't really expect to see an object and in certain conditions it might still be there and you didn't notice it till you either hit it or see it pass you by REALLY CLOSE!

 

True night vision

Does NOT return within a short period of time after being exposed to strong spotlight.

It mat take a half hour or more, for FULL and true night vision to return..after such exposure to light, IMHO.

Yes your pupil can dialate and shrink and dialate again under influence of strong or weak (no ) light - however the receptors (cones & rods) on your retina may NOT respond as quickly as the pupil does.

Light characteristics at night - are shown on charts - height above sea level - flashing characteristic, and Distance visible from are shown on charts...

Of course this varies with the clarity of the atmosphere (amount of suspended moisture / salt laden moisture/Dust etc as well as the significant wave height, tide etc all affect the actual distance you can see a certain light at night...

If (like me) you are already looking thru the bottom of two coke bottles, and then a dirty windscreen to boot - well maybe you can't see half as far! (or less). Add in loss of night vision from a bright spotlight in the eye and some skippers get very very cranky at bright light whether aboard their own boat or someone elses!

Stress is the reason, most often...the skipper is the one responsible for getting everyone home safe and bright lights from unthinking fellow boaters or even crew of his own vessel just increase the stress.

It's akin to pilots who have to "fly blind" by instrument thru cloud for example - the whole time - you are waiting for another plane (or a mountain top) to loom up in front of you at any instant - that my friends - is stressfull.

If your spot lights earn you the anger of fellow boaters - then you will know why..

Try navigating the dark in unfamiliar waters, plenty can and does go wrong in a very short space of time.

Like powerfull spotlights on your car / truck - theres nothing wrong with owning them, it's how you use 9or mis use) them that gets fellow road users cranky!

Same on the water really - use your head and you'll be alright!

Cheers!

 

under a silvery moon you can even go fast, but total moonles nights on the water is different. where possible its sometimes better to overnight with an anchorlight than trying to make it home. a powerfull bow mounted searchlight, or big flashlight, only shows a few meter of misty grey waves and fog -or suddenly a buoy-, no roadsigns! better navigate very slowly on gps and have a lookout on the bow or plan ahead by watching moon periods.

 

The discussion on restoration of night vision is interesting but it is not the only consideration. Agreed that sailing out on the open ocean with headlights like a off road racer is silly. I have navigated inland waters like the Tenn-Tom at night and found an articulated spotlight to be of great value even if there was some temoporary loss of night vision from reflected light. If you just turn it on to check out a suspected hazard in the water or the exact location of a buoy, it's a net positive rather than a negative to safety. Even with RADAR available, the light is very useful. When coming into a tight channel, fishing pot field or anchorage on a dark night a little light can save much embarassment, or worse. You won't be concerned about night vision while trying to free your keel, rudder or prop from a pot line or net.

Ditto the remarks about lights on commercial vessels. They are usually lit up like Christmas trees. All those bright lights get your attention, which should be the first thing of interest in avoiding collision. After that, you can search for the running lights to tell you the course of the thing, although they are sometimes hard to locate among all the brighter lights.

 

On the AC Nymphea we were entering the approach to Den Helder: a narrow piece of shallow water, sandbanks left and right, indicated by unlit buoys.
A gale of Bft 7 blew, waves braking over us and the buoys were as good as invisible for the helmsman and the watch. The boat grounded once, me standing with the projector in the pulpit to identify the buoys that we passed. Fortunately we were not dismasted.

Fishermen around us, noticing our peril, flooded their large spotlights and doing so clearing the path for us.
Heavy rain made normal nightvision impossible but with the forward beams of the fisherman we could see the buoys clearly in advance.

In any case, I will mount a reasonable 1 mil candles spot between the first spreaders. Legal or not!

 

Sensible d'Artois sensible!

Trouty - white over green is the starboard side of a power vessel underway; Green over white allround is this blasted trawler wer'e all on about! Red over green is your sailboat (with red or green side lights under); red over white is a fishing boat (not trawling); white over red is a pilot boat; red over white over red is special operations keep clear; lit up like a bloody christmas tree is probably dredging or hanging out the washing or drunk! And if it's all the other way up your in OZ - get it right can we! must be yer age!

 

There is also the issue here of needing extra light because your night vision has been extinguished by strong background lighting such as coastal sailing in populated areas at night, you have all the backlights of the town or city and with buoys moored boats navigation posts set nets fish traps night fisherman and small unlit boats.