BE SEEN IN THE DARK
Concerned that his boat wasn’t visible enough when running at night, this handy sailor upsized own East 45 sailboats, built in California in the 1970s, are beamy, heavydisplacement ocean-cruising boats. Yet they were fitted with navigation lights so puny, I wouldn’t even have them on a dinghy. The port and starboard lights on Britannia, my own Down East schooner, were the tiny teardrop style— also called sharks’ or birds’ eyes—mounted on the hull below the toe rail, only 4 feet above the waterline. They could easily be temporarily obscured in even a moderate sea. The stern light was no better, mounted centrally on the transom. Add to this the tiny 10-watt festoon bulbs, and a boat of this size had very
DPROJECTS
and relocated the navigation lights. ineffective navigation lights.
The possible disastrous consequences of not being seen on a black, moonless night doesn’t bear thinking about. Yet one sees boats with totally inadequate navigation lights everywhere. I decided to make sure Britannia was not one of them.
Even after removing and inspecting one of these tiny lights, I was not able to find a manufacturer or the supposed visibility range. Rules for a boat Britannia’s size state the lights should be visible from 2 nautical miles away, but their location made me doubtful they could even be seen at half a mile in a flat-calm. I value my life and my boat above this and decided to exchange the lights with bigger, more-efficient lamps mounted in a more conspicuous location. There are a lot of different makes of navigation lights, but before buying, I first had to decide the best place to locate the port and starboard lights.
There are many different ways to mount navigation lights. One is to use a combined port-and-starboard lamp, mounted centrally on the front of the pulpit rail. Another use of the combination-type lamp is at the masthead, which usually also encompasses a white stern light. Or one could have separate lamps mounted on each side of the pulpit rail. I have experienced problems with pulpit locations during tacks, when jib sheets would sometimes snag under the lamp body; one time, the lamp was completely wrenched off its mount.
I decided to buy a set of three individual Aqua Signal Series 41 lamps. These have Fresnel lenses with a minimum visibility of 2 nautical miles when fitted with the 25-watt bulbs that are supplied. I wanted to set them as wide