Solar Yard Lights on Boat
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Bill
Check out sandy cay he has very nice type solar light not as big and some have PVC to hold them in the winch and rod holders very nice at night really lights up his boat.
My next project when we return home will be to do the same and I think when anchored out at night will be seen by other boaters.
I have also seen club members put them on the dinghy also pretty cool.
Nick
Check out sandy cay he has very nice type solar light not as big and some have PVC to hold them in the winch and rod holders very nice at night really lights up his boat.
My next project when we return home will be to do the same and I think when anchored out at night will be seen by other boaters.
I have also seen club members put them on the dinghy also pretty cool.
Nick
How can they be so cheap? You can't buy the ni-cad batteries for less than the complete lights. Hell, the solar cells are probably cheaper per square inch than roofing shingles. Why aren't we farther along on alternative energy?
Roger,
Here is my take on cost-
I think they are cheap for several reasons. First, they are made in China. Second these light have a single LED and it is not a top-quality unit. They are second or third sorts from production. The battery is a NiCd not a nickel metal hydride or a lithium. The capacity is very low- it only has to supply one LED for 5-8 hours. Nobody cares if they go dead at 3am. The solar cell is also anemic. It only needs to charge the very small battery and it has typically 10-12 hours of daylight to accomplish this feat.
Bottom line, all the components are very small, low capacity, and made by the gazillions in China.
OTOH, batteries and solar panels that we want for our homes and sailboats are high-capacity, top-shelf items.
Here is my take on cost-
I think they are cheap for several reasons. First, they are made in China. Second these light have a single LED and it is not a top-quality unit. They are second or third sorts from production. The battery is a NiCd not a nickel metal hydride or a lithium. The capacity is very low- it only has to supply one LED for 5-8 hours. Nobody cares if they go dead at 3am. The solar cell is also anemic. It only needs to charge the very small battery and it has typically 10-12 hours of daylight to accomplish this feat.
Bottom line, all the components are very small, low capacity, and made by the gazillions in China.
OTOH, batteries and solar panels that we want for our homes and sailboats are high-capacity, top-shelf items.
Solar Lights
Here are some good ideas for solar lights on a sailboat which I will add to my boat and been thinking about doing and now see good better cheaper ways to do rather than the ones I have seen advertised in Marine stores.
Nick
Here are some good ideas for solar lights on a sailboat which I will add to my boat and been thinking about doing and now see good better cheaper ways to do rather than the ones I have seen advertised in Marine stores.
Nick
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I don't care if they light up the boat like the battleship New Jersey.... (tell me again why you want your boat lit up like a casino).. those things are damn ugly... if they weren't permanently mounted and you could stow them away when not in use, maybe... but you have to have them out in the day time to charge... geez, is there no sense of style or beauty left in the world....those things look like llittle mini pagodas... what next... gnomes?
See them at night where? Underway or on a mooring, these lights would be confusing to other boaters trying to identify light configurations and illegal as well. Am I missing something or has common sense eluded someone here?
Friends of ours have these mounted on their stern while in their slip... they are easy to remove I guess and they can be as short as the first connector (12 inches) or taller if you use more connectors . I think they use them both at their slip during the summer and they cruise with a group so I am sure they use them while rafting up. I think a few in the group might have them. The light they give off is mellow yellow and flickers, which is much better than the awful blueish light I see alot of.
We have ours in our backyard
We have ours in our backyard
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Nonsense
We are talking in a Marina or anchored out not while motoring or sailing and they are not that bright just added light in the cocpit at night saving our batteries when out anchored at night and could be stored until needed and would add seeing our boat in anchorage for those nuts that are blind to other boats around them you no who I am talking about the ones traveling at night and don't see where they are going until they hit some thing or some one's boat.
Nick
We are talking in a Marina or anchored out not while motoring or sailing and they are not that bright just added light in the cocpit at night saving our batteries when out anchored at night and could be stored until needed and would add seeing our boat in anchorage for those nuts that are blind to other boats around them you no who I am talking about the ones traveling at night and don't see where they are going until they hit some thing or some one's boat.
Nick
Sailing
When I was sailing to Florida from NY it sure would been nice for the fishing boats out at night to have lights on any light would have been nice when sailing at night black as the ace of spades and I always have running lights on but they all don't,and when we did see lights we called on the VHF to make sure they big tankers or fishingboats were seeing us for sure.
Nick
When I was sailing to Florida from NY it sure would been nice for the fishing boats out at night to have lights on any light would have been nice when sailing at night black as the ace of spades and I always have running lights on but they all don't,and when we did see lights we called on the VHF to make sure they big tankers or fishingboats were seeing us for sure.
Nick
That was the first thing that hit me too but after pondering for a minute I don't think they are illegal unless the boater is trying to get away with using them as nav lights. A boater can have deck lights lit underway legally. Commercial fishing boats (when working nets, traps or lines, flood the stern with light), party boats and cruise ships are often lit up like Christmas while underway.
Pretty sure they are not illegal (except as a nav/anchor light). Just take a gander at the barges going up and down the Cheseapeake Bay and you can clearly see that they are lit up like a christmas tree. You can hardly find the nav lights some times on these suckers. But you can certianly see where they are and svoid them.
I have been known to us a coleman latern in crowded/busy anchorages to light up the deck and provide drunk Joe ample visual clews to avoid me while I sleep.
I have been known to us a coleman latern in crowded/busy anchorages to light up the deck and provide drunk Joe ample visual clews to avoid me while I sleep.
i love these 3 dollar lites!!!! very helpful when needing to be seen. they work as anchor liting, cockpit lighting, and donot cost a lot. i have 6 of em-- lol...awesome lil things....the spotlite kind do well to light sails while underway--that, in itself, is wonderful for safety. no--they are not illegal, and canbe seen for looong distance-- more than one mile--
I saw them first at West Marine, second on the Commodore of the Yacht Clubs boat, and third on mine when i installed two on my catbird seat rails....
Gives me a warm cozy feeling under the covers at anchor to know my cockpit is lit up when I hear an enormous powerboat coming my way. Keeps me from turning on anything that will drain my battery when i need to fiddle in the cockpit for something at night as well. In the slip they are nicer than sitting in the dark, and since people see you they stop in.. If a thief prefers a darkened cockpit, then hes gonna pass mine by as its lit up every night even when Im 6 hours away for weeks at a time. Never read a law that said i had to be in blackout when running by sail or motor...
For the money, Id say they might be the best thing Ive added really..
Gives me a warm cozy feeling under the covers at anchor to know my cockpit is lit up when I hear an enormous powerboat coming my way. Keeps me from turning on anything that will drain my battery when i need to fiddle in the cockpit for something at night as well. In the slip they are nicer than sitting in the dark, and since people see you they stop in.. If a thief prefers a darkened cockpit, then hes gonna pass mine by as its lit up every night even when Im 6 hours away for weeks at a time. Never read a law that said i had to be in blackout when running by sail or motor...
For the money, Id say they might be the best thing Ive added really..
In case anyone missed the thread about it, I just installed one at the top of my mast, as a windex light http://sailingit.com/blog/archives/176
How did you get the last picture?
Nice job, but wouldn't it have been a little simpler to just use the led and mount some type of reflector around the led lens to reflect it's light onto the windex?
Were you on a crane?
Nice job, but wouldn't it have been a little simpler to just use the led and mount some type of reflector around the led lens to reflect it's light onto the windex?
No, mast is down for wireing of spreader lights. As for a reflector, my original plan was to wire the windex light to the nav lights, but once i thought of it, the solar solution was so cheap and easy (and cool) i couldn't not do it.rpwillia said:
We have several on our center cockpit of various models. Some are the cheap small ones to help see the deck at night. Four of the larger models to help light the cockpit area. It really helps moving around at night...especially with dogs. It also helps when boarding the boat at night. That little extra light doesn't make it seem like boarding a rock in the pitch black. It's inviting. It's also easier to pick out your boat if you return at night by dingy.
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