Lighting a vessel at anchor without going overboard

[HandsOnTech]

I am currently replacing my navigation lights with new LED fixtures. It is hard to imagine that these golf ball sized 2nm Attwood products will match the functionality of the comparatively huge lights I am removing, but we will give it a go.

While I am on this LED/wiring project, I am considering adding additional external lighting to make the boat visible and identifiable at anchor. I am thinking of those moonless nights when we weaved through the anchorage trying to keep track of anchor lights against a backdrop of stars while trying to determine which one was ours.

While I don’t want it to look like a casino boat, I do want it to be visible to traffic. Probably a permanent installation with a dusk till dawn feature. Probably with a dimmer to avoid annoying the neighbors.

Any thoughts on colors to use/avoid, locations on the vessel, specific LED products etc. would be appreciated.

 

[uncledom]

Red or Blue are always nice, Red is especially the perfect color to be seen and yet least effect your night vision. This is great for it to not be too annoying.

 

[Sailm8]

Besides my anchor light, I have a small solar yard light on port and starboard stanchions. They were $2 each at Walmart. I have a larger one on the stern set in the flag holder. They last all night.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

Red or Blue are always nice, Red is especially the perfect color to be seen and yet least effect your night vision. This is great for it to not be too annoying.

I’d avoid red, as it could be mistaken for a port bow light. It’s probably illegal for that use. Green too, obviously.
Blue would be ok so long as it’s not flashing- blue flashing would be used by police. In addition to my masthead I hang all-round bright white LEDs on the shrouds each side, clipped about 6 feet above deck level. You can also get strings of LEDs that run at 12v.

 

[uncledom]

It could be mistaken for a port bow light but that would make you the stand on vessel and the other vessel should turn away thereby missing your boat. I light the inside of mind in red and it gets a red glow through every port light and I have never had anyone think it was a bow light as it is an all around illumination. I'm not saying your wrong Larry I'm just saying it works and it is comfortable on the eyes.

 

[jssailem]

You can always turn on a spot light and light up your sails/mast should you have grave concern.

 

[Gunni]

A white light at deck level. MarineBeam inflatable solar lamp or navisafe battery lamp are easy options.

 

[Rich Stidger]

I don't use any special lights, but I do have a handheld GPS that I record our anchored position before going ashore. In the event of confusing anchor lights or dense fog, I am always able to get back home.

 

[Roadking Larry]

My slip neighbor has a couple of solar yard lights set at the corners of his slip that cycles through several colors, very easy to identify from even a couple of hundred yards out. Makes it easy to find my slip when coming in after dark.

 

[Parsons]

I hang an LED camping lantern from the boom end, if I’m concerned about boats moving about in an anchorage. It lights the cockpit and Bimini so it’s easy to see, and allowable under colregs as deck working lights. Battery lasts the season as it only is used occasionally. Also, it doesn’t shine down the V berth hatch and keep me up. The inflatable that gunni mentioned would be better, but I already had the lantern.

 

[capta]

I see every combination of lighting one could imagine at night down here in the Caribbean. Folks with those red and green LED lights (garden or accent, I don't know what dirt dwellers use them for) anchored right next to lit channels always amaze me. Then there are the led lights that change a half dozen colors. What are those people thinking? Are they advertising a party? Red, green or blue lights? Sure they are quite visible, but awfully distracting and very unpleasant for their neighbors. These are not colors that should be displayed after dark by any vessel not underway.
I love the idiots who use strobes as anchor lights. I suppose they've never even read the Colregs, huh? And of course, my favorites are those who don't bother to light their boat at all, especially in busy anchorages with at the very least, a bunch of folks dinghying home from a dinner ashore, never mind the drunks hurrying home after the bar closes to get another beer!
We've changed from a masthead anchor light to one below the boom on the solar panel bracket over the bimini almost amidships. It is a proper (legal masthead) anchor light, bright as hell, and it illuminates both masts, their wires and the boom above it. Therefor, anyone approaching our vessel at night from any angle has a pretty good idea that they are approaching a ketch at least 40 feet long.
We have a few garden solar led lights that sit in the winches in the cockpit (just by luck), but they are more to give us quiet lighting in the cockpit, than for those out on the water. They do make the boat a bit more distinctive once we get close, but since no other boat is presently lit as we are by the low, very bright anchor light, we can always see our boat from a mile or so away, without them.
Lighting a boat at anchor is not free form art! There are specific regulations that have been developed by a bunch of very intelligent folks over many years, that a whole bunch of countries have agreed to. Why is it so many boaters think they are so much smarter than those people who have developed and agreed to the Colregs?

 

[thinwater]

On my last boat (34' catamaran) I found that an LED cockpit light was about perfect. It outlined the boat but wasn't enough to keep us awake or bug the neighbors. Easy, nothing to add. Additionally, it does not add confusing lights since it only lights the boat.

 

[HandsOnTech]

Thank you all for your input. Your suggestions have me thinking about adding additional functionality to the cockpit and deck lighting instead of focusing on addition LEDs. In particular, a dimmer to set the lights to anchor mode and a motion detector to turn them on full. The motion detector would assist with boarding from the dingy and also serve as a deterrent to anyone trying to board unobserved up the steps of our reverse transom.

I installed a Lowes solar light with motion detection in the cockpit a few years ago. My neighbor called one night to suggest I might have an electrical problem as the lights were going nuts. I asked if it was windy. He said “very”. I think the motion sensor was detecting the binnacle cover flapping in the breeze. Will have to do some testing.

The biggest problem I see with today’s LED products is that they do not use “bulbs”, but incorporate the LEDs directly into the fixture. We discovered this problem when researching kitchen lighting fixtures at Lowes and HD. The biggest reviewers’ complaint was that the products were not living up to the expectations created with “Lasts UP TO 35,000 hours” on the box. This seems to amount to saying that you may be buying a winning lottery ticket. The result of a failure in six months is not replacing a bulb, but replacing the entire $200 fixture.

Has anyone come across particularly reliable LED lighting products for the cockpit? I am thinking of adding capacitors and ferrite beads at the breakers that feed the LED light circuits. It seems like the flicker in some of the LED bulbs I used to replace the incandescent cabin bulbs is related to the fridge and freezer compressors running. Thoughts and ideas?

 

[MitchM]

we have a removable 12 v davis cockpit light that hangs on a hook under the bimini (in addition to our mast top anchor light. ) the davis provides enough light in the cockpit and is a good extra light inside the cabin.

 

[gettinthere]

At anchor I always have my CG approved masthead LED anchor light with photocell control. Then if in a crowded spot or high traffic area, I turn on my foredeck light. It is the Forespar deck and steaming light combo. The foredeck bulb was an easy replacement to hardware store LED bulb. Lights up the boat very well and doesnt burn too many amps.
I also have a garden light LED at the bow and stern to delineate the ends of the boat for close passing vessels.

 

[Will Gilmore]

I am planning on installing inexpensive LED spreader lights to light the deck and cockpit area. Your post has me thinking about looking into a keychain remote to turn them on when rowing out to a mooring at night. Sort of the chirp and flash of a car with remote door locks in a crowded parking lot. Then I get the benefit of good overhead lighting while tieing up and climbing aboard in the dark.

- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Sailm8]

This is a grat cockpit light: https://www.amazon.com/MPOWERD-Luci-Outdoor-Inflatable-Solar/dp/B00F5TI7C4

 

[Parsons]

This is a grat cockpit light: https://www.amazon.com/MPOWERD-Luci-Outdoor-Inflatable-Solar/dp/B00F5TI7C4

Looks an awful lot like the MarineBeam product for a couple bucks more (not counting shipping differences). It's a good solution for under $20. https://store.marinebeam.com/portable-waterproof-solar-inflatable-led-lamp/

 

[seadaddler]

I have 2 Luci and saw many used as dinghy light on pvc pole,love them using free sun.
Nick