Strobe anchor lights

[double u]

I always understood that one has to carry lights-according-to-regs, & whatever you decide to carry in addition is up to you. I wonder if cruise-ships show no lights that could be "confused" with other lights, strobes in on-board discos, ...

[nhschneider]

I suggest that we make the distinction between strobe lights and flashing LED lights for this thread. A strobe light is most often used as an emergency signaling device (the one one my boat is part of my masthead fixture which also houses my tri-light and my anchor light) but the USCG doesn't officially recognize it as such. Flashing LEDs are decorative and are not a suitable replacement for an appropriately-fitted anchor light. However, there are no regulations on how you decorate your boat, with lights or otherwise.

Personally, I think that if a flashing LED can help avoid an accident then there's no harm done.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[lonesoldier0408]

Failing, "LED controllers," also cause flashing light. Yes, repair/replacement is the right answer, sometimes the wallet disagrees. [emoji848]

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

Strobe anchor lights are not uncommon in some parts of the world. I suspect the main reason is with a battery operated light it enables the use of a reasonably bright light with still acceptable battery life.

LED battery operated strobes like this are cheap and readily available:


They can be annoying, especially the models that flash multiple colours, but personally I think they are preferable to boats that only display dull garden lights. At least the boats displaying strobes can be seen.

However, a legal marine LED anchor light, preferably with additional lighting close to deck level is not expensive these days.

I have used these battery operated strobes attached to the middle of stern lines when anchored and tied to shore (as do many other boats). In these cases the light is at sea level so is less likely to bother other boats. What does the forum think. Acceptable or not?

I agree with Poiu that they are annoying, and I agree with others that it is NOT GOOD to use non standard lights which can be confused with navigation marks or distress signals, but I agree with you that any kind of light is better than nothing (or an invisible masthead light), and that there is no point in being excessively dogmatic about it.


I use spreader lights and/or cabin accent lighting (which lights up the port lights in my boat) where I'm concerned about traffic (not in the utterly deserted spots in the Baltic archipelagos, and to boot when there's no real darkness).


A decent battery powered camping lantern hung in the foretriangle from a halyard together with the anchor ball, would be the right solution to this, in my opinion. Where anchor lights really ought to be in the first place.

Speaking of which, I wonder what the forum thinks about displaying one of these together with the standard anchor light at the masthead? I know my spreader lights are legal because they can't be confused with a legal nav light, but what about a second anchor light? Hmmmm.

[Zven]

Originally Posted by Krabimike

.... To prevent the fisher man that have been drinking from running into us. They seem to mistake anchor lights as stars or they dont look up.

I'm often making that mistake. What's with the sailboat owners that put their only anchor light some 100 metres up in the air? With or without drinking, it often looks more like a star to me, at first glance.
That is, if I can see it at all. From inside my motorboat, it's hard to see anything at all high up, since the steering is set back a bit from the front windows. I guess many other cockpits and pilothouses are similar.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Ummm.... However, COLREGS are not US centric, they are worldwide, and they define strobes as an emergency signal...

The fact that such lights are in common usage in third world areas does not condone our using them on our cruising boats.

Jim

How does this not seal it? It is illegal.

I like to leave my cockpit light on too unless in a very remote area. Lights up the whole boat. Much safer than that "star" way up there.

BTW, the rule does NOT say that the anchor light must be at the masthead. It must be visible from a distance and visible 360 degrees. Honestly, for recreational sailors, it is only visibility withing the last few hundred yards that matters.

[Dauntlessny]

Boaters who think it's a good idea to display any flashing lights simply don't run much at night.

For if they did, they would have experienced the confusion flashing lights induce.
If anchored near channels or other places that you want more visibility, use your spreader lights to light the boat. Then it is clear what you are looking at.

Otherwise, it's far easier to mistake a (close-in boat mounted) flashing light as a )much-more distant land based antenna light.

[gjordan]

Trying to sleep with some clowns strobe light flashing in your open hatch or port lights is very annoying and happens much too often. The person with the strobe on doesnt see it because it is on the masthead and its arc doesnt come down to its own boat. It goes along with the sort of person that anchors in the middle of the pack and runs a noisy genset all night so THEY CAN SLEEP COMFORTABLY. Sorry for my rant. ___Grant.

[Copacabana]

You should see the power boats in Brazil! They almost all use strobes as part of their running lights - often more than one! And at anchor it's the same thing.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by nhschneider

However, there are no regulations on how you decorate your boat, with lights or otherwise.

Rule 20(b)

The Rules concerning lights shall be complied with from sunset to sunrise, and during such times no other lights shall be exhibited, except such lights which cannot be mistaken for the lights specified in these Rules or do not impair their visibility or distinctive character, or interfere with the keeping of a proper look-out.

Anything that can be mistake for an ATON is bad form.

[DocBrauer]

As long as you stay in Caribbean and North American waters feel free to bitch at whoever doesn't follow COLREGS. Don't be the ugly American if you travel further afield. I follow local customs wherever I go. Many I've found common there use to piss me off but I've mellowed with time and experience.

[Benz]

If strobes or flashers become common as simply markers, then their value as a distress signal is gone. For that reason I can hope that everyone, from fishermen in the third world to yahoos in the Caribbean, will cease to use flashers for everyday use. Would it not be annoying if it became commonplace for Thai fishermen to have full conversations on VHF 16? Even the ugly American would be justified in wishing they would take their traffic to another channel.
There are certain conventions that all seafaring folk everywhere OUGHT to follow. Regardless of race or culture, we are all humans, and many of us will need help sometime or other. Why not begin to help those in need by not gumming up the means of communicating distress?

[UNCIVILIZED]

Attempting to make up for poor seamanship, & watch keeping, by adding/relying on illegal lighting is BS. Period.
Along with the FACT that it's much, much tougher to discern distance from a strobe light vs. one that's continually on. So given this, the "safety" argument for strobes isn't fully valid. Since it's tough to determine where exactly they are in relation to you. This is particularly true when a vessel is moving at speeds above 5kts while trying to avoid anchored boats. Said boat's actions at anchor being irrelavent.

This coupled with the fact that in & near any port close to a city, there are hundreds, or thousands of lights visible at any one time. Many of them seemingly winking on & off (strobing). But which in reality this blinking is their being temporarily obscured from view & then reappearing. So adding strobes to this mix does not a good recipe make.

And also, along with that, consider this. Most navigational beacons, buoys, & shore based structures with aircraft warning lights, which you take bearings on to get fixes, have flashing or rotating lights with specific periods. And that these nav aids are difficult enough to spot & identify under the best of conditions is pretty inarguable. Thus adding more flashing lights into the mix contributes to hazards to navigation/navigational confusion non? It surely does for me, & always has.

If you can't see or definitively discern what's in front of you, slow down, stop, temporarily illuminate the area in question ahead of you, or reverse course. This, along with checking your radar (more so than your AIS or any other electronic nav aids), & cycling through it's settings, so as to perhaps allow it to better pick up targets in your vicinity. Fixed, & otherwise.

No one should rely on just one tool to enable them to safely navigate at night. Period. Hell, the same applies in the daytime! And these criteria also include overdependence on the MK 1, Mod 0, eyeball. As it, like anything else, is failable.
Those who can't navigate & operate their vessels at sea while conforming to COLREGS need to stay tied to the docks, & remain in floating condo mode. Regardless of what country they're located in, or what they desire to do at sea. Otherwise they're an additional detriment to everyone's safety. Why is this confusing, or "subject to interpretation", by some so called sailors?


BTW, who out there has a copy of COLREGS onboard? If you don't, you should.
I've yet to ship on a boat for/on which I've any responsibility, where there weren't at least 2 copies handy. And often a simplified version of this mandated reference as well. And said books surely weren't onboard as decoration or ballast. They're meant to be used when at sea, as well as studied by all hands.

If you want to add to your visibility at anchor, there are even options which draw zero power. In addition to those already mentioned by other posters. For example, put a patch of SOLAS reflective tape the size of a playing card every few meters around the perimeter of your boat (& tender) at gunwale level. In addition to on the mast at several different heights. It's cheap, easy, requires zero maintenance, & without question, it works.

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

Along with the FACT that it's much, much tougher to discern distance from a strobe light vs. one that's continually on. So given this, the "safety" argument for strobes isn't fully valid. Since it's tough to determine where exactly they are in relation to you. This is particularly true when a vessel is moving at speeds above 5kts while trying to avoid anchored boats. Said boat's actions at anchor being irrelavent.

This coupled with the fact that in & near any port close to a city, there are hundreds, or thousands of lights visible at any one time. Many of them seemingly winking on & off (strobing). But which in reality this blinking is their being temporarily obscured from view & then reappearing. So adding strobes to this mix does not a good recipe make.

And also, along with that, consider this. Most navigational beacons, buoys, & shore based structures with aircraft warning lights, which you take bearings on to get fixes, have flashing or rotating lights with specific periods. And that these nav aids are difficult enough to spot & identify under the best of conditions is pretty inarguable. Thus adding more flashing lights into the mix contributes to hazards to navigation/navigational confusion non? It surely does for me, & always has..

One more advantage of a bowsprit as a protection in case of T-boning one..

[DocBrauer]

Uncivilized, I read your post and agree with you 100%. That is how it should be. Unfortunately in the real world, for me in many third world countries, that's just not the way it is. It's the world I live in and it's not going to change to suit either of us. When a fisherman works for $6 a day (my brother-in-law in the Philippines) he's not going to put an anchor light on his bankha. He'll use his cheap strobe like the tens of thousands of other fishermen in SE Asia. You think we should put them out of work because we wish it was different? Frankly most use a cigarette lighter to let you know they are there. I almost never sail at night within 30 miles of shore. Should we yell at them or run a dinghy into them for not doing what we would wish. Or should we accept what is. By the way I singlehanded there from Oxford, Maryland and my wife joined me 5 years ago. I consider myself a real sailor. Same is in the rest of SE Asia. Can say that when your in the anchorage here 80% of the cruisers here have strobes on their boats, but then it is very rare out of large cities that you see lighted markers/channels. A flashing light unlike in our world, is assumed to be a boat unless proven otherwise. When I cross towards South Africa next year then back to Caribbean I will return to the customs of the area again, because I will be in a part of the world where things are different, again. Safe travels.