Alignment of Navigation Lights?

[troppo]

Originally Posted by Hud3

Saw that and thought maybe you dozed off at the keyboard...

Funny thing, I have that effect on people when talking to 'em. Seems it happens when they read my stuff on forums.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by troppo

Funny thing, I have that effect on people when talking to 'em. Seems it happens when they read my stuff on forums.

[Roy M]

On my boat, I started with the Aquasignal combined port/starboard bow lights mounted just below the rail of the bow pulpit. Now, I have a slightly different install. In the cockpit I use an DPDT on-off-on rocker switch for the running lights. One position is for engine power, which energizes the compass lights (on one pole), the deck level lights (Aquasignal bow and stern lights) and the mast-mounted steaming light. The other position turns on the compass lights (one pole) and the masthead tricolor light for sailing. I will be converting my masthead light to LED when I overhaul. I kept the deck lights incandescent since I had spares, they are easy to access, and the engine is running so I'm not too concerned about energy consumption.

In all cases, the running lights are more than a mere technicality. You want to make absolutely sure that another vessel has the best chance to see your vessel and to determine your course relative to them.

[hellosailor]

Dan, I certainly do remember it. And one could make the point that when a blind drunk in a speedboat is about to torpedo you, a half degree alignment on running lights wouldn't matter much anyway.

But on a more practical basis, how many threads have there been about "my mast isn't straight" or something else about a boat or the rigging being out of alignment? I have to wonder, is it even possible to determine the fore/aft centerline of a boat to that accuracy, for the average owner? You might need to remove the stemhead or anchor roller, to find the real pointy end dead center. And then what? Move aft to the mast, which might not be centered in the partners? Or...how to skip around that to get clear aft to the transom? Carefully measuring on what straight line to another centerline? Then carefully run the marine-grade chalk line to snap a centerline on the boat?
I'm not saying it is impossible, but I've done some carpentry making cuts accurate to 1/64th of an inch, only to find that when the humidity shifted, so did the wood and there's a reason carpenters never measure that closely.<G>

Half a degree on the centerline of a boat? Ever seen a windex that was aligned that closely? Ever seen a racer's wind instruments aligned that closely? Really??

You know, I'm not going to check the color spectrum for those lights either.<VBG>

[Jim Cate]

G'Day Troppo,

IMO, the thing that you really want to do is maximize brightness, minimize obscuration, and finally and least importantly, be correctly aligned and have proper angles of visibility. These are the things that make your vessel visible to others, and which enable them to gauge your course. When you consider how much a boat yaws about when at sea, a few degrees of misalignment have very little practical effect upon such judgement.

Worrying about the entanglements of law enforcement or the legal system will bog down any installation on your boat. Your feelings about doing a reasonable job being adequate seem correct to me... let the sea lawyers squabble while you go sailing!

Cheers,

Jim

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

(...) IMO, the thing that you really want to do is maximize brightness, (...)

+1

and all this within the limits set in colregrs - right colors and not too bright either!

b.