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04-11-2015, 14:41
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#211
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Coos Bay, Oregon
Boat: Valiant 40 (1975)
Posts: 4,073
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
I spent last week in San Diego (thanks Del!) and lived on the harbor. Early ever morning and every evening, I would bicycle past hundreds (even thousands ?) of boats at anchor or mooring balls. Not one had a top mast anchor light lit up. There were quite a few LEDs surround the cockpit of some, but nothing above the water more than 20 feet. And that was on more than 5 miles of very popular mooring areas in San Diego bay.
I am glad it worked out for you Dockhead. Sounds like everyone chipped in where they could.
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04-11-2015, 21:32
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#212
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cruiser
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Probably in an anchorage or a boatyard..
Boat: Ebbtide 33' steel cutter
Posts: 5,030
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dockhead
The rest of the original story . . . in case anyone is interested in how it turned out.
My insurance company came through far above and beyond the call of duty, waiving my deductible and agreeing not to go after the fisherman. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...os-155725.html
The fisherman, overwhelmed with relief, offered to spend a few days helping me work on the boat, as some kind of compensation, which I gratefully accepted.
Lallow's started on the work today and promise to have it finished in a couple of weeks. I'll be gone on business for a couple of weeks, coincidentally.
So in the end everything has turned out quite well for everyone. In great part thanks to the extraordinary actions of the insurance company.
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Thanks for the update, a good outcome. Which could have been completely different had you gone guns blazing after the fisherman as many would have. Well done!! A lesson for us all.
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04-11-2015, 21:33
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#213
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Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, cruising in Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 28,400
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Dockhead,
Excellent results! Good on you! Kudos to Pantaenius and to your negotiating skills!
Ann
__________________
Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
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04-11-2015, 21:54
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#214
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Arctic Ocean
Boat: Under construction 35' ketch (and +3 smaller)
Posts: 2,731
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dockhead
The fisherman, overwhelmed with relief, offered to spend a few days helping me work on the boat, as some kind of compensation, which I gratefully accepted..
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Never know when you bump into new friends
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04-11-2015, 23:31
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#215
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Boat: Bieroc 36 foot Ketch
Posts: 4,953
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Great result Dockhead. Glad things are working out.
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05-11-2015, 07:53
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#216
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: PNW 48.59'45N 122.45'50W
Boat: Ian Ross design ketch 63'
Posts: 1,472
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
It just amazes me, what happens when everyone acts like grownups. Good for you!
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07-11-2015, 21:00
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#217
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Penobscot Bay, Maine
Boat: Tayana 47
Posts: 2,123
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Quote:
Originally Posted by s/v Beth
I spent last week in San Diego (thanks Del!) and lived on the harbor. Early ever morning and every evening, I would bicycle past hundreds (even thousands ?) of boats at anchor or mooring balls. Not one had a top mast anchor light lit up. There were quite a few LEDs surround the cockpit of some, but nothing above the water more than 20 feet. And that was on more than 5 miles of very popular mooring areas in San Diego bay.
I am glad it worked out for you Dockhead. Sounds like everyone chipped in where they could.
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I was in San Diego last week too and have never seen such a collection of junky, poorly kept sailboats, and it looks like very few of them ever leave their moorings. What a mess! I'm surprised they're allowed to live there year after year without ever leaving their moorings.
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11-06-2016, 00:07
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#218
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cruiser
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Pangaea
Posts: 10,856
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Thanks to your original post, we added two of these LED laterns from Walmat $15 each. They each have a rechargable battery life good for 8 nights and illuminate the deck nicely in anchorages.
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11-06-2016, 01:27
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#219
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Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Denmark (Winter), Helsinki (Summer); Cruising the Baltic Sea this year!
Boat: Cutter-Rigged Moody 54
Posts: 33,750
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kenomac
Thanks to your original post, we added two of these LED laterns from Walmat $15 each. They each have a rechargable battery life good for 8 nights and illuminate the deck nicely in anchorages.
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A good solutions!
I was in the market for one of those and didn't quite manage it before departure.
Meanwhile, I have left my deck lights on at anchor, when there was any darkness!! Now up here there's no darkness, so the anchor ball is enough , but nevertheless I leave salon secondary lighting on, which illuminates the hull ports.
I'll look again for the lanterns next time at a hypermarket.
__________________
"You sea! I resign myself to you also . . . . I guess what you mean,
I behold from the beach your crooked inviting fingers,
I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me;
We must have a turn together . . . . I undress . . . . hurry me out of sight of the land,
Cushion me soft . . . . rock me in billowy drowse,
Dash me with amorous wet . . . . I can repay you."
Walt Whitman
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11-06-2016, 17:09
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#220
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: sunshine coast, aus
Boat: AHD windsurfer :p
Posts: 306
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Quote:
Originally Posted by Viking Sailor
So let see... You are saying that a person who can see an Alternating Current (AC) powered room light twinkle, can also see a Direct Current (DC) powered anchor light that is less then a mile away twinkle. Since it is the effect of AC on the room light that they are observing as twinkling - I think not.
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Just a note, we have an led head torch that when on half brightness in fact just switches off and on, you can clearly see the strobing by waving your hand in front of it, I imagine if it were moving at the top of a mast it would appear to twinkle.
Oh, and BTW interesting thread, thanks all
__________________
Sure my windsurfer isn't much of a cruiser but I bet it needs less maintenance than your boat : p
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11-06-2016, 17:36
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#221
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Lived aboard & cruised for 45 years,- now on a chair in my walk-in closet.
Boat: Morgan OI 413 1973 - Aythya
Posts: 8,453
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
I must confess that I did not read all of this thread,- just the first five pages and then a skip here towards the end.
I'm also in agreement that outcomes are best with polite behavior and it's a credit to those involved that all worked out well.
I'm posting in defense of the high masthead anchor light and specifically their great advantage over lower lights in much of my cruising area such as Florida and the Bahamas where all the land is low.
A high light provides visual information about the distance of the light due to parallax. Neither stars or lights at your own level will move relative to your own movement, while a masthead light will increase it's apparent movement as your approach. If your eye is near deck level and a light you are directly approaching is at the same level it may not be distinguished from other lights much further away.
I add other lights. I particularly like my LED spreader lights giving a glow to my whole deck, but I would not want to risk anchoring without a high light that is distinguished by it's relative movement when viewed from an approaching vessel.
Well, of course, none of these lights are seen by those not looking!
__________________
Take care and joy, Aythya crew
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11-06-2016, 19:49
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#222
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Boat: Island Packet 40
Posts: 6,416
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Quote:
Originally Posted by sparau
Just a note, we have an led head torch that when on half brightness in fact just switches off and on, you can clearly see the strobing by waving your hand in front of it, I imagine if it were moving at the top of a mast it would appear to twinkle.
Oh, and BTW interesting thread, thanks all
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I started mucking about with DIY LED anchor lights before you could buy them off the shelf. One of the circuits I toyed with used an oscillator output to clock a decade counter with each of the ten outputs wired to a LED. The advantage of this was that only one LED was actually switched on at a time resulting in a significantly lower power draw than a series/parallel arrangement. Whether or not the light appeared to "twinkle" or strobe depended upon the frequency the oscillator was designed for.
When they became available in the market I bought one which triggered the squelch on my VHF radio and locked it up. I assumed that this light had either some sort of switched mode or oscillator circuit which was cycling near the CH16 frequency.
With all the things you can design LEDs to do it would not surprise me to see one twinkling.
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12-06-2016, 06:23
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#223
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cruiser
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Probably in an anchorage or a boatyard..
Boat: Ebbtide 33' steel cutter
Posts: 5,030
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
Quote:
Originally Posted by RaymondR
I started mucking about with DIY LED anchor lights before you could buy them off the shelf. One of the circuits I toyed with used an oscillator output to clock a decade counter with each of the ten outputs wired to a LED. The advantage of this was that only one LED was actually switched on at a time resulting in a significantly lower power draw than a series/parallel arrangement. Whether or not the light appeared to "twinkle" or strobe depended upon the frequency the oscillator was designed for.
When they became available in the market I bought one which triggered the squelch on my VHF radio and locked it up. I assumed that this light had either some sort of switched mode or oscillator circuit which was cycling near the CH16 frequency.
With all the things you can design LEDs to do it would not surprise me to see one twinkling.
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I made one loosely based on the frankenbebi circuit, but using a linear regulator based on an lmv431 chip, similar to this one but with a FET transistor.
With cree leds, it's very bright set to about 0.1A. With the overlap of the led viewing angles it "twinkles" a bit as the boat rocks slightly even in the calmest anchorage.
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08-08-2016, 04:18
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#224
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Boat: Leopard 50
Posts: 45
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Re: Don't Rely on Mast-Top Anchor Lights -- Bitter Experience
All good suggestions.
Our easy fix to add lots more light was to buy a box of cheap solar garden lights and attach them to stanchions etc (insert the upright piece into a loose looped cable tie).
We put them away when we return too port but they still rust out each year but for a $1 a piece, they are much cheaper than batteries.
They also add a nice ambient light around the boat without turning on brighter LED's etc.
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