Navigation Lights on Mast or Bow, or Both

[YARGO]

Regarding fog, an excellent question. I don't recall reading in the operating directions if that is possible or not. Am away from the boat and unable to check.

[capt jgw]

The Rules don't allow the deck level and mast top tricolor light to be on at the same time, but these things really only come into play in court after the crash. I doubt anyone could successfully argue that they didn't see you because you had too many lights on.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by YARGO

Also regarding the deck level lights. It's mandatory to keep these in order to be legal under power as you must have a white steaming light above them. Under power you do use the masthead nav light.

Under power you use the masthead nav light? That would be above the white steaming light.

[alctel]

I have a red over green at the top of my mast, since I can run them at the same time as my deck level nav lights

I had to make a custom tree though for them but it wasn't too expensive (around 50 bucks inc materials)

Here it is being installed



and at night



I've a walkthrough of how I installed it here

I installed a seperate breaker panel for the nav lights

[steve77]

To the OP - Stix 'n Rign in kemah installed a stecktronix light on our boat and we are extremely pleased with it. We have no issues of VHF interference and the VHF antenna is also located at the mast head.

The other posters are concerned with using this light under power. Ok, this light is for sailing only. But for sailing, it is perfect.

The combination of nav lights, anchor light, and strobe using one pair of wires is awesome. In my case it also freed up two breakers on my electrical panel that I now have for other use.

I cannot be more positive in my recommendation. We love it. I would also be remiss if I did not mention that Stix n Rign replaced and installed the unit over a year after I installed it due to internal condensation. Great warranty service.

[sailjumanji]

Thanks Steve. Yes, they are lined up to do the rigging work as well. Have a history of excellent service from Kevin and his crew. I think he actually told me about your light, and one of the reasons that he is pushing them is because Stecktronics stood behind your issue and that of another boat, redesigned the light to fix the condensation issues, and changed out any that had problems.

Thanks for the confirm on the VHF interference concern.

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by capt jgw

The Rules don't allow the deck level and mast top tricolor light to be on at the same time, but these things really only come into play in court after the crash. I doubt anyone could successfully argue that they didn't see you because you had too many lights on.

A green masthead light means that you're a fishing vessel trawling underway, and a red one means you're fishing but not trawling. So you can be misinterpreted as a fishing vessel instead of a sailing vessel if you use your deck lights and tricolour at the same time.

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by CGirvan

We were told by a crewman on a freighter that he found masthead lights tended to get lost in the shorelights when viewed from the deck of a ship. The lower nav lights due to the dark sea background were much more visible. Just something to think about.

This is a great point I hadn't thought of. Deck level lights would be better in coastal situations, especially with background lights, and masthead would be better offshore where swell will hide the deck lights.

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by alctel

I have a red over green at the top of my mast, since I can run them at the same time as my deck level nav lights

This is a great option. You can't run your tricolour with the deck level lights on, but you can run your red over green lights .

The flip side is that you must have your deck lights on when you're using the red over green. This means your current draw is higher than just running a single LED tricolour offshore.

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

Under power you use the masthead nav light? That would be above the white steaming light.

The masthead light and steaming light are one in the same, a 225 degree white light showing forward. On a sailboat it is usually half way up the mast, not at the "masthead". That's why we call it a "steaming light" instead. It's only required to be one meter higher than the red and green side lights. The one you're referring to is the "tricolor" light which is the red and green side lights and white stern light combined. It is at the "masthead" or top of the mast and may only be used under sail alone.

[steve77]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

Thanks Steve. Yes, they are lined up to do the rigging work as well. Have a history of excellent service from Kevin and his crew. I think he actually told me about your light, and one of the reasons that he is pushing them is because Stecktronics stood behind your issue and that of another boat, redesigned the light to fix the condensation issues, and changed out any that had problems.

Thanks for the confirm on the VHF interference concern.

Tell Kevin he owes me another tee shirt.

Ok, just kidding. Tell him hello from the Azores. And, yes, his crew does good work. They replaced our standing rigging maybe 3 years ago.

Steve

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

A green masthead light means that you're a fishing vessel trawling underway, and a red one means you're fishing but not trawling. So you can be misinterpreted as a fishing vessel instead of a sailing vessel if you use your deck lights and tricolour at the same time.

Not quite. The mast top light signals are all two lights, vertically arrayed one meter apart:
"Red over Green, I'm a sailing machine"
"Red over White, Fishing at Night"
"Green over White, Trawling at Night".
Trawlers have to be moving, green for go. Fishing vessels might be stopped, red for stop.

[capt jgw]

I love these NavRules threads. The discussion on masthead lights always comes up. In my Captain License course I almost hate to see sailors signed up, there's so much not by the book terminology they have to unlearn to pass the exam. The course would be easier to teach to some one who had never seen a boat.

[alctel]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

This is a great option. You can't run your tricolour with the deck level lights on, but you can run your red over green lights .

The flip side is that you must have your deck lights on when you're using the red over green. This means your current draw is higher than just running a single LED tricolour offshore.

True, but my Running Lights draw 0.3 amps and Red over Green draw 0.2 amps, so not a huge problem overall

[capt jgw]

Back before LEDs it was a problem. The red over green was rarely seen on anything under 100 feet.