DIY boating
A bit like running aground, every boatie will misjudge his return trip and venture home in the dark. It can be a scary experience, but appropriate lighting can help.
Lighting it up
Out on the open water is bad enough, but not being able to see moorings and other boats when you get in close makes things tricky. Going into a foreign anchorage with unknown hazards is worse. The solution, of course, is to fit lighting. A range of waterproof spotlight and floodlight options is available, and these can be turned on at crucial moments.
Note: it is illegal to fit ‘headlights’ to a boat. Navigation lights comprise red and green units (port and starboard) and a white light facing astern. You may not run at speed with forward-facing bright white lights.
What we are talking about here, though, are not running lights but rather docking lights, to be used when moving slowly towards a crowded mooring, into an unlit marina or down a river channel.
These lights could be either a narrow beam, for identifying specific hazards while they are some distance away, or a wider floodlight that illuminates the entire surrounding area.
Traditionally, only halogen bulbs were able to provide adequate lighting. These get hot very quickly, draw a considerable amount of current, are sensitive to being knocked and, because of the heat issue, are hard to waterproof completely.
The development of the Light Emitting Diode (LED) and, in particular in 1993 the Nobel-prize-winning invention of the high-brightness white LED, has led to the range of options we now have.
Although Halogen-based spotlights and floodlights are still available, the long life, low current draw and intensity of LEDS make these a no-brainer. A bank of high-output LEDS can be combined with an appropriate lens option to provide the exact
light spread required for the particular situation. These are now available in various sizes and configurations to suit the installation requirements.
Our project boat now lives on Auckland’s Tamaki River, a busy piece of water with many channel markers, moorings and jetties. Coming down the river at night has seen some near misses recently, and we were keen to find a solution to make this less stressful.
Few Kiwi companies know LED technology better than Hella Marine, a name most boaties will be familiar with. Here at Boating NZ we love successful companies that showcase New Zealand technology around the world, and Hella is just such a success story.
A large R&D centre, as well as two manufacturing locations in Auckland and Waihi, serve the company that exports some 80 percent of its production to branches in Australia, the US and Europe.
So we went to discuss our requirements with Chris Middleweek and Duncan Stirling – Hella’s sales and marketing managers respectively. They recommended the Sea HAWK-XLB.
A low-profile strip light with 12 LED elements, it comes on adjustable, stainless steel brackets for fitting to a cabin roof or deck. With a modest 25-watt power consumption but providing 2,200 lumens of light, this unit’s capable of illuminating the entire channel.
It has three beam options, each with a different front lens. The narrowest option focusses the beam into a 5o pencil spot, which illuminates over a great distance. The 10o spotlight provides a wider spread of light, while the 45o floodlight is designed to illuminate a large area close by, such as the cockpit or deck.
Few Kiwi companies know LED technology better than Hella Marine, a name most boaties will be familiar with.
A clever double bracket means that, if required we could elect to fit a combination, for example the floodlight and one of the spotlights, on the same mounting. The units also have a switchable lowpower mode, when more muted lighting is required.
We took some sample units to the boat on a proverbial dark and stormy night to try them out. The first thing we learned is that front edge of the cabin roof is NOT the place to locate spotlights for locating hazards on the water.
The reflections from the stainless steel rails, and the glare off the white foredeck, made it extremely difficult to see anything in the water beyond. This is why it’s a good idea to test the lights on your boat at night before installing them permanently.
Depending on your boat layout there may be better options to reduce glare. The obvious one is to mount the unit on the cabin roof but set back from the edge so the hardtop casts a shadow over the foredeck.
An alternative is to choose a location right on the outer edge of the deck, outside the bow rail. While some might question the viability of this (and they will be more susceptible to damage here), remember these are rugged and fully waterproof units, so exposure to salt spray will not cause any problems.
The first unit we tried was the pencil spot, which was astonishing. It easily lit up a boat nearly 100m away. It was also great when directed at one of the pile moorings, providing a bright centre of light with every detail visible. This option is ideal for locating items a fair way off, and could be ideal for cruisers who regularly go into unknown anchorages.
But in the crowded channel we felt the 10o spot was a better option. With the light spread out a bit more it was not quite as intense, while remaining bright. This would be perfect for motoring forward, looking for our mooring ropes with enough time to stop and hook them before they became tangled.
The third option was the 45o floodlight, which we loved. With enough light to illuminate not only our own mooring but also the next few along, this will be the solution for us. We have sufficient space to fit the single Sea HAWK-XLB unit, but if necessary we could opt for a pair of the smaller Sea HAWK-XLR units (1,300 lumens) and fit these either side of the hardtop, or along the edge of the deck just outside the bow rail.
Installing the units is easy, with the adjustable stainless steel brackets requiring two screws either side. The lights come pre-wired with 2.5m of cable, and a suitable watertight gland should be used to feed this to the switch panel inside.