do you use side lights or tricolor?

[parkstone bay]

So, what song do you play on the disco system? "Sailing" - that's fairly obvious, if you ARE sailing. I offer "Will your anchor hold?" when you are at anchor. It has the benefit of reminding those who hear it to check they've not dragged (It's a little religious, but many sailors are indeed slightly religious). But I don't know a song about motorboats.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by parkstone bay

So, what song do you play on the disco system? "Sailing" - that's fairly obvious, if you ARE sailing. I offer "Will your anchor hold?" when you are at anchor. It has the benefit of reminding those who hear it to check they've not dragged (It's a little religious, but many sailors are indeed slightly religious). But I don't know a song about motorboats.

For COLREG purposes, there are numerous songs and video titled Get Out of My Way. Quite possibly the most compelling is the genre of choice being rap. Played REALLY loud on your hailer or broadcast on VHF. Particularly useful when arriving or departing in the middle of the night within a quiet, cozy anchorage full of boats. Experience reveals that the anchorage tends to clear out to make room for you so that you can be provided joyful seclusion.

The multicolored strobe spot lights that illuminate the rotating disco ball need to be set to go with the beat of the song you are playing. While the rap video linked below is specific to land yachting [a.k.a. Red neck Georgia pick up truckers] version. The lyrics are readily changed for each mode of transport. By way of example, substitute the word yacht for truck, wake for wheels, etc. and off you go sailing.

One version that could be easily sung over VHF that is catchy and gets the point across goes something like this:

Get out of my way,
you better listen, listen, listen to what I say,
else I'm going to mess around and draw my pistol and blow you away,
today is not the day to test me, I am so insane, get out of my way.

I believe that would qualify for clear and appropriate expression of navigation intent for COLREGs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mjMFDBEVSA

[Viking Sailor]

The music thing reminds me of a passage back from Vietnam aboard a C-4 cargo ship. This was in the late '60 during the height of the cold war. The winds and seas were dead calm as the ship began a late night passage by Johnson Atoll. As the ship approached the atoll a lookout reported a white light close off the port bow, then another, and yet another in a line nearly parallel to our course. The OOW informed the Captain who in just seconds was on the bridge. He ordered slow ahead and left rudder taking the ship between two of the lights. He ordered one of the crew to go below to spread the word to darken and quiet the ship. He proceed to slalom between the lights until an exceeding well lite fishing trawler appeared ahead. As our unlit ship approached to within a couple of thousand yards of the trawler we could hear classic Slavic music playing. The Captain ordered the engine to stop and proceeded to pass the trawler no more then 50 feet off our port side. Once the ship was well clear, of what was obviously a Soviet spy trawler, the Captain ordered the ship to resume course and speed. There was never any sign that the trawler crew ever knew we were ever their. (Unless the trawlers crew woke to fine that they had a bunch of damaged sonar cables.)



So much for norms, rules and the best laid plans of seafarers.

[parkstone bay]

"Get out of my way ...." sounds most appropriate for a "burdened" vessel, e.g. RAM or NUC. And "Gone Fishing" is obvious, so long as you are not trawling!

[torrmundi]

Hi,

I've been racing and sailing a trimaran (24 foot) since 2007 on the Chesapeake. This has a rotating mast, making a tricolor a very bad choice. When I considered the lights on my new mast, I chose Red over Green as a good option with the rotating mast.

I have had problems with the hull-mounted nav lights. Mine is a bi-color mounted on the pulpit. However, when sailing downwind I have a gennaker mount upon the bowsprit that occludes the bi-color. It also causes a lot of back-scatter that doesn't help. The alternative, mounting upon the hull itself, it also problematic as any significant waves would also occlude the lights.

Anyway, here's the schematic for light controls that I have.
- Running lights + Sailing or Steaming
- Anchor light

[Newish-Sailor]

<<who doesn't remember "red over green, sailing machine">>


DOCKHEAD has it. Of course the really scary set of lights is red over red, which means essentially "the Pilot is Dead"!

[DHHerndon]

If you regularly motor or motorsail in your sailboat, side lights are much better because all you need to do when motoring or motorsailing is to turn on a white forward-facing masthead light (in addition to your stern and side lights). If you use a tricolor, you will need two complete lighting systems - one for motoring and motorsailing, and the other one for pure sailing. From Dave Herndon, USCG Captain (Power, Sail, and Towing vessels).

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by Newish-Sailor

<<who doesn't remember "red over green, sailing machine">>


DOCKHEAD has it. Of course the really scary set of lights is red over red, which means essentially "the Pilot is Dead"!

Wouldn’t you need a white over red as well, if the pilot were dead as well as the skipper?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by DHHerndon

If you regularly motor or motorsail in your sailboat, side lights are much better because all you need to do when motoring or motorsailing is to turn on a white forward-facing masthead light (in addition to your stern and side lights). If you use a tricolor, you will need two complete lighting systems - one for motoring and motorsailing, and the other one for pure sailing. From Dave Herndon, USCG Captain (Power, Sail, and Towing vessels).

That's pretty obvious, isn't it? Tricolors are only supplements to deck level lights, and no one uses a tricolor to the exclusion of deck level lights.


Even for a boat without a motor, you wouldn't want to be without the deck level side lights and stern light -- as others have written, tricolor is not well visible from closer ranges, so you don't want to use a tricolor anywhere except well offshore.


I use mine -- when well offshore -- to save night vision and in the hope that it will be better visible from longer distances and in rough sea conditions.


An alternative to that might be to better screen the deck level light, and use the red over green sailing machine lights in ADDITION to the deck level ones. Other than the night vision issue, that will have superior visibility from all ranges. And the night vision issue could probably be dealt with with screens.



Of course if you never sail at night offshore, then don't bother with any of this and just stick with the deck level lights plus steaming light and forget about it.

[DHHerndon]

You are incorrect. The tricolor is clearly not a supplement to the sidelights. The COLREGs do not allow both the tricolor lights and sidelights to be shown at the same time. It's one or the other. The COLREGs however do allow showing two all-round lights at the masthead (the upper green and the lower red) along with the sidelights. See Rule 25 parts (a), (b), and (c). Dave Herndon, USCG Captain (Power, Sail, and Towing).

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by DHHerndon

You are incorrect. The tricolor is clearly not a supplement to the sidelights. The COLREGs do not allow both the tricolor lights and sidelights to be shown at the same time. It's one or the other. The COLREGs however do allow showing two all-round lights at the masthead (the upper green and the lower red) along with the sidelights. See Rule 25 parts (a), (b), and (c). Dave Herndon, USCG Captain (Power, Sail, and Towing).

No one said you use them at the same time Of course you don't. Read back in the thread and you will see that everyone understands that.



What was said is that they supplement side lights in the sense that you can't choose between them -- you must have the side lights in any case. So why would anyone be weighing a choice between tricolor or sidelights? No one asks this question -- it's either tricolor or no tricolor.


If you want to use both sidelights and something on top of your mast at the same time, you need the red over green all around lights, which are harder to install on smaller boats because of the one meter vertical separation.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

That's pretty obvious, isn't it? .....

If it were obvious there wouldn’t be disagreements between groups of thoughtful people. And the COLREGS would be worded differently.

[Dockhead]

No one disagrees about this particular point. The COLREGS are somewhat subtle on some points, but not this one.

Originally Posted by Adelie

If it were obvious there wouldn’t be disagreements between groups of thoughtful people. And the COLREGS would be worded differently.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

That's pretty obvious, isn't it? Tricolors are only supplements to deck level lights, and no one uses a tricolor to the exclusion of deck level lights.


Even for a boat without a motor, you wouldn't want to be without the deck level side lights and stern light -- as others have written, tricolor is not well visible from closer ranges, so you don't want to use a tricolor anywhere except well offshore.


I use mine -- when well offshore -- to save night vision and in the hope that it will be better visible from longer distances and in rough sea conditions.

All my Nav Lights are individually switched so I can show combinations as preferred.
Attachment 200688

I only tend to use the deck level side lights in harbour conditions to assist others with my Aspect

My Tri-light anchor light does show up well in close quarters as it is mounted on a pipe above the masthead

If motor sailing, once away from ambient shore lights, I switch to the Tri-light plus the all round anchor light (3Nm) shutting.off the upper spreader Steaming light and Stern Light to avoid the spill of those lights on the bow waves and on tender..


If I remember correctly... Sailing Navlights have a much higher vertical range of visibility ....which is why the steaming light splashes light on forrdeck

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

All my Nav Lights are individually switched so I can show combinations as preferred.
Attachment 200688

I only tend to use the deck level side lights in harbour conditions to assist others with my Aspect

My Tri-light anchor light does show up well in close quarters as it is mounted on a pipe above the masthead

If motor sailing, once away from ambient shore lights, I switch to the Tri-light plus the all round anchor light (3Nm) shutting.off the upper spreader Steaming light and Stern Light to avoid the spill of those lights on the bow waves and on tender..


If I remember correctly... Sailing Navlights have a much higher vertical range of visibility ....which is why the steaming light splashes light on forrdeck

I have had singularly bad luck with the visibility of mast-top lights.


I had an actual collision with a fishing boat which didn't see my mast-top anchor light


And I almost had another collision with another fishing boat off the coast of Northern Scotland, which didn't see my tricolor. Thank God the chap was smart enough to be looking at his AIS and saw me there, and called me on the radio. I switched on deck lights so he could see me, but we were already less than a mile apart . (We won't go into why I didn't manage to see him before that, how he got through my radar guard zones etc., but shirt happens).



After that I don't use the tricolor except far enough offshore that I am only worried about ships.


Just one data point, but I think I would prefer red over green PLUS deck level lights, to be sure not to have a re-run of that experience.