Who remembers all around white lights?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Lads I did a damage assessment survey on a Lagoon cat that was anchored in Hervey Bay. He only had a mast head anchor light and got T-boned by a small trailer boat that didn't see him. The mast light was 70 foot above the water line at least. I think both were at fault as the cat was anchored to close to the channel and the small boat skipper should have been keeping a better look out. Still you can't realistically expect a "weekend warrior" to have enough sea experience to look 70 feet in the air for an anchor light. The Lagoon owner admitted they had a few other close calls, so they knew the anchor light height was a problem.
Cheers

But you're not looking at a steep angle until you're right up to a 70' mast light. You're coming into an area, and seeing lights -- bright lights. Your angle of view is very shallow at first. As you get closer the lights get brighter, so yes, you have to look up higher to follow, but you gotta be a pretty poor sea-person to miss this sort of thing.

I think a more likely scenario is little zippy boats scooting way too fast through an anchorage. Here I can see them missing a high anchor light, which is why I hang a cockpit light in busy places. But even in this case, it's hard to justify. Anchor lights are 360º, so they light up what's below as well. A legal anchor light easily lights up a significant amount of the upper vessel, if not the whole thing.

[Jim Cate]

Anchor lights are 360º, so they light up what's below as well. A legal anchor light easily lights up a significant amount of the upper vessel, if not the whole thing.

Actually Mike I can't agree with this. Most commercial anchor light fixtures employ Fresnel lens systems which focus the light into a mostly horizontal 360 deg "fan". This limits the amount of illumination that reaches the deck level, especially from tall masts.

But I agree with the rest of your post!

Jim

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Actually Mike I can't agree with this. Most commercial anchor light fixtures employ Fresnel lens systems which focus the light into a mostly horizontal 360 deg "fan". This limits the amount of illumination that reaches the deck level, especially from tall masts.

But I agree with the rest of your post!

Ah, true... Mine is like this, and it still lights up a lot of my boat. Heck... I lost my spreader lights some years ago, but find the anchor light throws enough around for me to work. But my mast is only about 45' high, so I take your point.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Most people assume that any place marked on a chart as an anchorage is a “Special Anchorage” which is not the case.
There are a lot fewer “Special Anchorages” than many people think.

This is correct.

I would still use an anchor light regardless of any possible exception to the requirement.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by Chotu

I am in a busy Anchorage for the first time in quite a while.

Looking around at anchor lights I see:

Boat 1: yellow flashing strobe on cabin top , no other light.

Boat 2: some Christmas lights strung around, some white and some red. No other light

Boat 3: some bluish colored light at the boom “twittering.” Sort of a chaotic strobe effect. Also some strung Christmas lights No other lights.

Boat 4: no lights at all

Boat 5: looks good plus spreaders lights


Remember all around white lights for anchoring? Times sure have changed.

In my part of the country, there is little or no enforcement of the "rules". People find that they can get away with ignoring the ri=ules so that's what they do.

While flashing lights might seem to improve a boat's visibility, they can certainly be annoying to someone nearby trying to sleep or just relax. Effective law enforcement would take care of that and the other things you mentioned.

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by Orion Jim

In the U.S. there are many special anchorages designated which do not require anchor lights on certain qualified vessels. Perhaps this is the case and some are not aware of these designations. The demarcations are clearly outlined on charts.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/33/109.10

There aren't many Special Anchorage Areas around, and around here most of them are jammed full of mooring balls so you can't anchor there anyway.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Ah, true... Mine is like this, and it still lights up a lot of my boat. Heck... I lost my spreader lights some years ago, but find the anchor light throws enough around for me to work.

It depends on the light. The technical requirement in the COLREGs/inland rules is in § 84.19(b)(2) and specifies full intensity for +/- 5° and half intensity for +/- 25°. Any spill beyond this point is seen, by the manufacturers, as wasted light that increases the required intensity of the LED (or incandescent bulb as the case may be) and therefore the power draw. LEDs are inherently directional and many of the newer lights that are engineered from the ground up as LED lights (as opposed to being minimal redesigns of incandescent fixtures) have extraordinarily sharp cutoffs beyond 25°.


Some simple geometry shows that an observer a few feet above the water has to be about 2 feet away from the mast for every foot of mast height to be within the 25° vertical sector. For discussion this is around 100' for most cruising sailboats. I find that's about right for my boat, which has a newer, LED anchor light at the top of the mast. Within 50' it's hardly visible at all.


I have a Sofirn LT1s to hoist in the foretriangle and I suggest that as an alternative to the garden lights. They're bright enough to meet §84.19 on the medium-low setting and will run about 25 hours on that on a 21700 cell. They are IP67 and can be recharged using a USB-C cable. They are inexpensive and not well enough sealed to last "forever" in a marine environment but are an alternative to consider.


https://www.sofirnlight.com/products...nd-white-light

[Montanan]

Link to the list of US Coast Guard designated Special Anchorage Areas at which vessels under 65 LOA do not need to display anchor lights.

Code of Federal Regulations [CFR]


https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-3...-110/subpart-A

Subpart A - Special Anchorage Areas

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by capt jgw

There aren't many Special Anchorage Areas around, and around here most of them are jammed full of mooring balls so you can't anchor there anyway.

Moored vessels should also display their anchor light.

[Zanshin]

I didn't see this thread until today, but last night I was shaking my head at all the anchor lights around me. All of them had red lights atop their masts!

I'm in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua right now and the docks are chock full of mega- and superyachts. The big sailboats have started using red lights instead of white lights. While not strictly legal, nobody is issuing them warnings or fines. These boats argue that their masts are so tall that they need to warn aviation, which is required for structures taller than 45meters.

All of the anchored yachts and boats owned by mere mortals had all-around white lights with the exception of a French small boat which had to use that obnoxious flashing white light.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Some simple geometry shows that an observer a few feet above the water has to be about 2 feet away from the mast for every foot of mast height to be within the 25° vertical sector. For discussion this is around 100' for most cruising sailboats. I find that's about right for my boat, which has a newer, LED anchor light at the top of the mast. Within 50' it's hardly visible at all.

Good analysis J. Seems about right to me. The point is, masthead lights only become too high to comfortably observe when quite close. Approaching boaters can easily view masthead lights. Once spotted, any reasonable person will monitor it, even at the risk of some minor neck strain. If the light disappears with nothing visible (only possible in thick fog, or nights of complete darkness), the reasonable response would be to slow even more, and use a ship's light to scan the area.

Point is, a masthead light is not as useless as some here make it to be -- at least not for the size of boats most of us have. Where I think it becomes an issue is for zippy boats who are racing through anchorages at close quarters. This is where I think a masthead light would be hard to spot, which is why so many of us deploy other lights in these busy anchorages. (That, and to find our way home from sundowners ).

Originally Posted by Jammer

I have a Sofirn LT1s to hoist in the foretriangle and I suggest that as an alternative to the garden lights. They're bright enough to meet §84.19 on the medium-low setting and will run about 25 hours on that on a 21700 cell. They are IP67 and can be recharged using a USB-C cable. They are inexpensive and not well enough sealed to last "forever" in a marine environment but are an alternative to consider.

https://www.sofirnlight.com/products...nd-white-light

Thanks for the suggestion. They look good. Like many here, I've tried the standard patio lights, but was never happy with them. I currently use a couple of battery-operated LED hand lamps to hang in the cockpit, or hoist up the flag halyard in times of additional need. But these looks even better .

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

I'm in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua right now and the docks are chock full of mega- and superyachts. The big sailboats have started using red lights instead of white lights. While not strictly legal, nobody is issuing them warnings or fines. These boats argue that their masts are so tall that they need to warn aviation, which is required for structures taller than 45meters.

I don't necessarily see an issue with that, but they should also be displaying the required white light (ideally down lower so it's very clearly separated from the red light). And if they're over 50 meters, they actually need 2 anchor lights.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

I didn't see this thread until today, but last night I was shaking my head at all the anchor lights around me. All of them had red lights atop their masts!

I'm in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua right now and the docks are chock full of mega- and superyachts. The big sailboats have started using red lights instead of white lights. While not strictly legal, nobody is issuing them warnings or fines. These boats argue that their masts are so tall that they need to warn aviation, which is required for structures taller than 45meters.

All of the anchored yachts and boats owned by mere mortals had all-around white lights with the exception of a French small boat which had to use that obnoxious flashing white light.

Actually, over a certain height, red is appropriate as aircraft become the ones who need the alert.

Red is correct on mega yacht masts.

It’s in the rules somewhere. I read it out of curiosity years ago.

[Zanshin]

@Chotu - I searched all the COLREGS and never found any reference to all-round red.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

@Chotu - I searched all the COLREGS and never found any reference to all-round red.

Even if it's not in the COLREGS it could be a local requirement if within some distance of an airport.