Tricolor vs Anchor Light Only

[Moody Buccaneer]

I had a similar incident to this north of Bermuda about 25 years ago. A small boat with no radar signature on a nasty night had no lights on. Our ship's noise must have woken him up because our first hint that he was there was him shining his flashlight on his sails. He was pretty close, about 200 yards. We were doing about 17 knots. He was very lucky. He should have had lights and an effective radar reflector. Thankfully radars are better now and lights consume less power. Even a chem light or anything would have been more visible. Ships stay away from unknown lights when at sea.

What many sailors that have little sea time underestimate is how long they have to react to that little dot on their horizon. The visible horizon from the cockpit of a sailboat is about 11 miles IIRC. That ship at 17 knots will be here in under 30 minutes ... if you see it within 5 minutes of it coming over the horizon, you now have 25 minutes to figure if either one of you will have to change course.

At night ... well good luck ... 6 miles for the masthead 3 miles for a sidelight. 10 minutes to see, comprehend, calculate and avoid ... that is for you to see the ship. From time the ship steaming at 17 knots sees your 2 mile sternlight or sidelight to running you down is 7 minutes at best.

With AIS receivers available for under $100, knowing what is over the horizon, where it is going, at what speed and on what heading is cheap piece of mind. AIS doesn't help them see you, but at least you know where they are and have a much greater chance of reducing the risk of collision. Running lights just don't give very much time to react.

I think the total for my running lights, sailing instruments, AIS, chart plotter, and VHF is something under 6 amps. If I can't have these systems up from dusk to dawn, I really shouldn't be sailing at night. 72 amp hours a night is a small need to feed compared to becoming a bump in the night for a passing ship.

 

[capta]

Moody Buccaneer
All fair questions. But to be honest I don't remember much other than the above. It was the early eighties; radars were not what they are today. It may have been a normal (crappy-I've made the crossing from BVI to St Martin numerous times as a VI charter skipper & it was rarely pleasant) evening in the Anguilla Passage, but on a freighter who'd notice? The sailing boat may have only turned on his lights when he felt in danger????
Actually, several months ago in a marina in City Island NY, I was sitting in the cockpit (under the bimini) & kinda ranted (in my mind) about the a--hole entering the marina w/o nav lights, only to feel the fool once he'd gotten far enough away for me to see the tri-color.
There have been quite a few times when I have assumed a vessel was unlit, only to realize that they had the tri-color (usually in harbors; searching the water's surface for marks).
Radar reflectors also present a problem for commercial vessels. They paint a target simular to a 600' ship at some distance, but when seeking visual confirmation, quite often no vessel can be seen. A busy watch stander might come to the conclusion that it is a glitch (ghost) in the radar, putting more attention on confirmed targets.
In 1978, sailing up the Red Sea I finally determined that my safest option was to sail w/o lights (or radar reflector) @ night. With as many as 12 ships in sight @ times, any ship which altered course because of my lights invariably put his vessel into harm's way from another ship & his attempt to correct his course actually put me in greater danger. Unlit, the ships did not alter course & I could thread my way through the traffic fairly confident that all vessels would maintain course & speed. Hey, it worked!
I took the radar reflector off this boat as soon as I bought it. If it's foggy or restricted viz, I can hoist one on a halyard.
As for anchor lights, I hung a kerosene lantern every night in the fore triangle, on my circumnavigation & slept well. I sleep less well w/ the masthead anchor light, so much so that I've purchased a set of garden path solar ss lights. I put one on the bow, one on the stern & 4 in cockpit winches (they fit perfectly where the handle goes).
When single handing I use a kitchen timer set for 15 minutes (for cat naps) because I figure that's the time it'll take for a vessel unseen over the horizon, to get within a few miles of me @ about 20 knots. Well, a military ship got me one night in the Med.; unseen or heard to 500 feet away in less than 15 minutes. Oops!
But we each must pick what makes us most comfortable. Nothing nautical is set in stone. Common sense is your best safety tool.

 

[S36_Osprey]

As I was finishing the Marblehead to Halifax race in the middle of the night a few years ago, near the harbor entrance, a boat with a red & green high up plus a lower white light was coming towards us. None of us could figure out what it was. We thought it might be a tug and barge or other large vessel. Big boats come out of that narrow channel. We were about to take evasive action, when we finally determined it was a sailboat (about 25 feet) with a masthead tricolor plus steaming light. Scared the crap out of us.
Ever since then I have hated those things.