Steaming light location?

[Chotu]

Steaming light. About halfway up the mast. White. Faces forward. That’s what I’m used to.


I have seen a different type of product on defender that claims to be a steaming light and an anchor light. In one.

You can turn on “all around white” mode or “forward facing only” mode.

Is it valid to run a steaming light at the top of the mast?

[deblen]

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/...2.html#docCont

[rslifkin]

Those combo units are more often used on powerboats where they're not up so high. I have one on my boat.

Personally, I'd be more inclined to move the anchor light down with a light on each side of the mast rather than moving the steaming light up (from an ease of visibility perspective).

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

Those combo units are more often used on powerboats where they're not up so high. I have one on my boat.

Personally, I'd be more inclined to move the anchor light down with a light on each side of the mast rather than moving the steaming light up (from an ease of visibility perspective).

Interesting. Yeah. I don’t like the idea of a steaming light way up there. I feel like that doesn’t make much sense. That’s why I was a little confused by these particular products.

I will keep the bright LED masthead anchor light in my plan. Because that’s only part of my lighting at anchor but is still a very important part.

As it turns out, all of my lights are broken. They smashed the steaming light and deck lights on delivering my mast. And the tricolor late is failing my tests and broken. More of that super high-quality contracting people to do Boat work stuff. Yay.

So I’m going at it with no lights at this point. I have to start fresh unfortunately.

Thinking I will do a masthead anchor light. Combination steaming light and deck light about halfway up the mast, also need a new bow light. I used to have side mounts but they got torn off by hurricane damage. This time since I have a seagull striker I think I’m going to put a vertical mount bow light on the seagull striker like a lot of monohulls have in their bow pulpit. And I never had a stern light ha ha. Haven’t really taken this thing out in the dark. So I will grab one of those also.

I don’t have a choice because I have to do some overnight passages since I can’t fit inside the ICW after this stop

[rslifkin]

If you're starting from scratch, I'd be tempted to do deck level side and stern lights, steaming light on the mast and the red over green combo at the masthead for when you're sailing. Personally, I think the red over green + deck level side and stern light combo is more visible than a tricolor or just the deck level lights.

Anchor light is a matter of preference. At the masthead or 2 lights part way up (that appear as a single 360 from further away) are both legal. And you can use whatever deck lighting you want to make the boat more visible in addition to the required stuff.

[gonesail]

how about masthead running (red and green) lights?

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by gonesail

how about masthead running (red and green) lights?

I don’t think I want those. Added complexity

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

If you're starting from scratch, I'd be tempted to do deck level side and stern lights, steaming light on the mast and the red over green combo at the masthead for when you're sailing. Personally, I think the red over green + deck level side and stern light combo is more visible than a tricolor or just the deck level lights.

Anchor light is a matter of preference. At the masthead or 2 lights part way up (that appear as a single 360 from further away) are both legal. And you can use whatever deck lighting you want to make the boat more visible in addition to the required stuff.

And I think your last sentence is the real key. I remember you and I agreeing on this in the anchoring threads. Just light up the deck. If you can show the silhouette of the boat it’s the best possible way to avoid people hitting you. Or mistaking your anchor light for something on land. That’s a huge part of my anchoring technique.

But I also like the masthead light all the way up there. So people can get a good idea of the actual shape of the boat. It should be the highest point in my opinion. That way they can see how high the mast is as well as the entire super structure. Basically it’s almost like looking at the boat in the daytime. The mast head all around light can help you judge the dimensions of the boat. In a rough way. It also alerts prudent mariners to an anchorage or just a boat at anchor from very far away, around corners, etc. And then if you are a real dope and thought it was a star and you are looking for lower boats, you can still see my whole super structure and the shape of the deck also.


But I want to keep things simple. I don’t think I want to do anything on the mast for running lights. That’s just too much extra work. I have to be done June 30. Every hour and every pound and every dollar counts. Plus just for simplicity sake, I don’t want to have all that extra wiring to do and keep track of and replace some day. It’s not necessary, so I am not keen to add it. It’s still a performance boat. Every pound counts. And simplicity is the name of the game on this boat.