Do You Always Show an Anchor Light When Anchored?

[nigel1]

Have a LED mast head anchor light and also LED deck lights which are on at night whether at anchor or on a mooring buoy.
Not having one on will give the insurance company every opportunity to not paying a claim in the event of a collision.
Would sort of ruin your day if you ran into an unlight boat at anchor. Doubt if you'd appreciate their excuse they were saving the amps to cool the beer.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Nostrodamus

I have thought about solar lights but most have insufficient brightness required and a lot do not last through the night.

Mine lasts all night on high setting (it has a low setting also and can be turned off when out to sea). It lights up the whole cockpit and just clips on and I use it it sometimes as a light when I am walking on the deck. It also makes it a lot easier to find the boat at night because most boats don't have one.

I only got it to meet a minimum shipping order once, but like it a lot. Get one and be happier and safer.

[Dave the Canuck]

Originally Posted by jackdale

Not requiring a light in a designated anchorage is a US Inland rule only.

International Rules call for an anchor light, unless under 7 meters and within specific guidelines.

Not requiring a light in a designated anchorage is also valid in Canadian waters.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by jackdale

Not requiring a light in a designated anchorage is a US Inland rule only.

International Rules call for an anchor light, unless under 7 meters and within specific guidelines.

must be OK in the international rules to run over those smaller unlit boats

[Dave the Canuck]

Originally Posted by Dave the Canuck

Not requiring a light in a designated anchorage is also valid in Canadian waters.

That being said, I'm very grateful when I pull in after dark and everyone has a light on. Especially those moonless nights.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Dave the Canuck

Not requiring a light in a designated anchorage is also valid in Canadian waters.

Not true. The Canadian modifications make no such reference, unless you are partially submerged.

Anchored Vessels and Vessels Aground — Canadian Modifications
(g) In the Canadian waters of a roadstead, harbour, river, lake or inland
waterway, instead of exhibiting the lights prescribed by
paragraphs (a) to (c) of this Rule, a barge or an inconspicuous,
partly submerged vessel or object may, when at anchor, exhibit
(i) in the case of a barge, those prescribed by paragraph 24(j),
and
(ii) in the case of an inconspicuous, partly submerged vessel or
object, those prescribed by paragraph 24(g).
(h) Notwithstanding this Rule, in the Canadian waters of a roadstead,
harbour, river, lake or inland waterway, a barge or an inconspicuous,
partly submerged vessel or object, when at anchor,
is not required to exhibit any light while located within a recognized
mooring, storage or booming area that is not an area in or
near a narrow channel or fairway or where other vessels normally
navigate.

The only designated anchorages in Canada are the numbered anchor areas shown on charts. They are for large vessels which are really lit up.

EDIT

This from an email that I received from CHS.

The International Hydrographic Organization (which CHS is a member of) has a hydrographic dictionary which defines a Roadstead simply as: An area near shore, where vessels can anchor in safety; usually a shallow indentation of the coast.

In the CHS we will add a general anchorage symbol (see CHS Chart 1, N10) for areas that have been reported to us a suitable anchorage with good holding characteristics.

All the other anchorage symbols we use and those with limits are defined by somebody else, like harbour authorities, and we simply chart them where they provide us with authoritative direction.

Of course we must also consider the scale of the chart as to when we show the anchorage, and generally they will fall only on the best scale chart for an area.

In the US Inland Rules the designated anchorages are spelled out here http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text...1.4.35&idno=33 . In Canada we have no such designation.

Another CHS email

The anchorage symbol is for mariners' guidance but does not have any regulated basis. It is used where it has been considered necessary to aid mariners. There is no attempt to capture all anchorages or to restrict anchoring to those locations only. Where a vessel decides to anchor is up to the master, in accordance with good seamanship, the conditions and due consideration of the traffic conditions. Having said that, Port Authorities may have special rules concerning anchorages within their jurisdiction. Also, we do have areas where anchorage is prohibited and these are marked on the charts, which do have a regulatory basis.

[Hudson Force]

I keep an LED masthead anchor light on at night when anchored. Some say these, at this height are "useless", but unlike the low lights, they will indicate how far you are from an approaching boat by parallax as well as distinguish themselves from all the background lights. I also keep my LED spreader lights on when it's Saturday night and people are dinghying back late from the Tiki Bar (myself included)! I also keep four solar lamps on my rails and the reflective tape. Why not use it all? ....though I don't think I'll be free enough with my 12VDC to add the motion sensor spot lights!

[Dave the Canuck]

Originally Posted by jackdale

Not true. The Canadian modifications make no such reference, unless you are partially submerged.

The only designated anchorages in Canada are the numbered anchor areas shown on charts. They are for large vessels which are really lit up.

EDIT

This from an email that I received from CHS.

In the US Inland Rules the designated anchorages are spelled out here http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text...1.4.35&idno=33 . In Canada we have no such designation.

Another CHS email

Hmmm. I may be mistaken but I do remember checking this a few years ago. I'm away right now but will check my books upon my returN and will report.

[Jim Cate]

First, we always (ALWAYS) display an anchor light when anchored. To not do so just because you are in some designated anchorage shows poor judgement IMO. Anchored boats are hit by inattentive boaters in such places too, and I for one don't want a collision even if later I am found to be "in the right".

We, like most cruisers, try to not enter anchorages after dark. But, again like most cruisers, sometimes it does happen to us. We've cursed the unlighted boats and the ones with nearly invisible garden lights as we creep around looking for a suitable spot to drop the hook. No way do I want to be like them!

The inexpensive LED lights sold by Bebi are indeed a great device. Very bright, auto turn-on/off and low power drain, and a very good company to deal with. Highly recommended, and I agree that a light displayed lower than the masthead is better in most cases. We hang ours from a lazy jack riser, near the fore/aft centerline of the boat and about 12 feet above the waterline. Lights up the radar arch, the dodger and the mast enough that a dark adapted viewer can make out the boat as well as the light itself. And FWIW, on the rare occasions that we take a mooring we still display the light... for the same reasons: we don't want our home hit by some drunk in a tinnie if we can possibly avoid it.

Cheers,

Jim

[Dave the Canuck]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

First, we always (ALWAYS) display an anchor light when anchored. To not do so just because you are in some designated anchorage shows poor judgement IMO. Anchored boats are hit by inattentive boaters in such places too, and I for one don't want a collision even if later I am found to be "in the right".

We, like most cruisers, try to not enter anchorages after dark. But, again like most cruisers, sometimes it does happen to us. We've cursed the unlighted boats and the ones with nearly invisible garden lights as we creep around looking for a suitable spot to drop the hook. No way do I want to be like them!

The inexpensive LED lights sold by Bebi are indeed a great device. Very bright, auto turn-on/off and low power drain, and a very good company to deal with. Highly recommended, and I agree that a light displayed lower than the masthead is better in most cases. We hang ours from a lazy jack riser, near the fore/aft centerline of the boat and about 12 feet above the waterline. Lights up the radar arch, the dodger and the mast enough that a dark adapted viewer can make out the boat as well as the light itself. And FWIW, on the rare occasions that we take a mooring we still display the light... for the same reasons: we don't want our home hit by some drunk in a tinnie if we can possibly avoid it.

Cheers,

Jim

Well said and agreed re always showing a light.

[bobconnie]

We use it ALL !! two Kero Lamps in rigging one forward and one aft, reflektive tape stern light, even used a strobe in a rough ancorage in an out island in Fiji once !! I don't carry any hull Ins and I like to be seen !!! Hit me and your ins Will Pay !! LOL

[CSY Man]

I always use at least one anchor light, sometimes 4 if anchored in a heavy traffic area. (Along the East Coast of Florida)
Cheap insurance and with LED tech, no battery drain to speak of.

Last week I was anchored next to a Tayana 37 displaying a red anchor light in the mast top. First time I have seen that except on monster/mega yacht sailboats with 200' masts, and then to keep low flying airplanes from hitting them, not to signal "at anchor"...

Has anybody else seen red anchor lights?

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

And FWIW, on the rare occasions that we take a mooring we still display the light...
Cheers,

Jim

As you should, being on a mooring buoy is no different that being anchored. I would suspect that almost all mooring fields in the US are within the designated anchorages. In Canada, with no designated anchorages for small vessels, an anchor light is needed. "Moored vessels must comply with the Collision Regulations." Mooring Buoys - Transport Canada

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by CSY Man

Has anybody else seen red anchor lights?

That would be illegal. Rule 30.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

even used a strobe in a rough ancorage in an out island in Fiji once !!

Not sure about Fiji, but here in Canada that is not permitted, as a strobe light is a distress signal under Canadian modifications to Annex IV.

EDIT Also prohibited in the Inland Rules.