Anchor Lights in a Mooring Field (USA)?

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by paul2884

so is your boat on a mooring or at anchor? as the name suggests anchor lights are for when you are at anchor, not if you are moored to a mooring.

By definition:

moor
[mo͝or]
VERB
moored (past tense) · moored (past participle)

make fast (a boat) by attaching it by cable or rope to the shore or to an anchor.


Definition of mooring
1: an act of making fast a boat or aircraft with lines or anchors

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Montanan

FYI:

United States Code of Federal Regulations

The signals for moored boats is the same for boats at anchor because a moored boat is at anchor. This applies to day shapes, lights and sound signals.

§90.5 Lights for moored vessels.

A vessel at anchor includes a vessel made fast to one or more mooring buoys or other similar device attached to the ocean floor. Such vessels may be lighted as a vessel at anchor in accordance with Rule 30, or may be lighted on the corners in accordance with 33 CFR 88.30(h) through (l).

[CGD 94-011, 63 FR 5732, Feb. 4, 1998, as amended by USCG-2015-0433, 80 FR 44281, July 27, 2015]

Yes, for those unclear on the concept: Anchoring = Mooring. In most situations, there is no difference under the law. But more importantly, there is no difference in practical terms.

There are some very special areas where lights are not required. These are few and far between. In most cases, if you are moored, you are supposed to be showing an anchor light.

But regardless... I once again return to the simple idea that I want my boat to be seen at night. It matters not one bit what the law says. I want to be seen, and I want to see other boats in the dark. It's that simple.

As I say, I understand where the no-lights idea came from. In the not-so-distant-past it was virtually impossible for small vessels to power an anchor light for weeks at a time unattended. Incandescent bulbs used a lot of power, and solar panels were rare and expensive.

But those days are long gone. Low-amp LEDS combined with a cheap solar panel is all that is needed. And if that's too much, Home Depot or Lowes will sell you a box of solar powered garden lights for under $50.

There really is no excuse not to be light up these days -- unless you're actually trying to hide .

[Auklet]

Evidently, we have some word usage variances at work. A vessel is moored if it is made fast to the bottom with an anchor. So, in that sense any vessel at anchor is moored. A place where many boats lie at anchor together might be called a “field” of moored vessels. If it is a place in regular use it might eventually be called a, or the, mooring field—i.e., a place where vessels go to anchor. Next, the government authorities arrive and install “berths” in the mooring field. The berths are set in place with anchors to which are connected floating “balls” that allow a vessel to attach. That vessel would then be made fast to the bottom with that attachment, i.e., again moored. Next it becomes regulated and money is collected to support the installed berths (fixed moorings). It then takes on a whole new ambiance of being something more than a place where vessels regularly go to anchor, as it had been. Thus arises a confusion between an “Anchorage” and a “Mooring Field” when, in fact, they are the same things where the same rules apply, etc., as originally so.

As noted several times prior, a Special Anchorage area may contain permanent berths set out with fixed moorings. Thus, they are Anchorages were vessels go to be made fast to the bottom with an anchor that has a floating attachment point at the surface, and where they must now pay for the use of, etc.

[Chotu]

This thread is nuts. Ha ha ha.

All theory.

In PRACTICE, when people have their boat on a mooring ball in a mooring field, they do not show lights.

In practice, if you have one of those remote moorings out by itself in an odd spot, you ought to show a light.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Chotu

In PRACTICE, when people have their boat on a mooring ball in a mooring field, they do not show lights.

You mean amateurs and idiots do not show lights. You will never see a commercial vessel on a mooring without the anchor ball and lights. And any intelligent boater would think it sensible to indicate the presence of their vessel.
YMMV.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

You mean amateurs and idiots do not show lights. You will never see a commercial vessel on a mooring without the anchor ball and lights. And any intelligent boater would think it sensible to indicate the presence of their vessel.
YMMV.

Yeah right. The whole lobster boat fleet in Maine in the mooring fields are displaying anchor lights ... ok


If you’re in a mooring field, any offending poor navigator would have to crash through and sink 30 other boats typically before hitting a given random boat in the field.

The issue here seems to be that nobody agrees on what a MOORING is.

Are you picturing a ball out in the middle of navigable waters like a channel?

Because I picture a mooring as the thing holding these boats in place. And absolutely no one, even commercial boats, display any lights in a mooring field.

Just try and hit my boat on one of these mornings. I bet you can’t. You’ll sink long before you get to mine from all the collisions.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Yeah right. The whole lobster boat fleet in Maine in the mooring fields are displaying anchor lights ... ok


If you’re in a mooring field, any offending poor navigator would have to crash through and sink 30 other boats typically before hitting a given random boat in the field.

The issue here seems to be that nobody agrees on what a MOORING is.

Are you picturing a ball out in the middle of navigable waters like a channel?

Because I picture a mooring as the thing holding these boats in place. And absolutely no one, even commercial boats, display any lights in a mooring field.

Just try and hit my boat on one of these mornings. I bet you can’t. You’ll sink long before you get to mine from all the collisions.

How do you think boats get into or away from those moorings in the centre? Oh yeah, in your world they wait for everyone else to leave first

Is that perhaps a "USCG Special anchorage"? Either way, I wouldn't exactly expect fishing vessels (ie. the same vessels that have their dayshapes welded to their masts) to set the example of proper behaviour.

Only a moron doesn't know what a "mooring" is. Mooring buoys are "anchored" to the sea bottom. What is a "vessel at anchor"? That doesn't specify a vessel anchored by its own anchor. It doesn't obviously preclude a vessel that is using another vessel's anchor, nor does it preclude a vessel using an anchor that is not owned by the shipowner. So if you are attached to a mooring, and a mooring is anchored, then you are anchored.

[Auklet]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Yeah right. The whole lobster boat fleet in Maine in the mooring fields are displaying anchor lights ... ok


If you’re in a mooring field, any offending poor navigator would have to crash through and sink 30 other boats typically before hitting a given random boat in the field.

The issue here seems to be that nobody agrees on what a MOORING is.

Are you picturing a ball out in the middle of navigable waters like a channel?

Because I picture a mooring as the thing holding these boats in place. And absolutely no one, even commercial boats, display any lights in a mooring field.

Just try and hit my boat on one of these mornings.]

Sir. You are adding nothing to this discussion. Have you missed this entire series of posts? Where is the anchorage? Can you read a chart? Is it shoreward of the COLREGES demarcation line? That's a dashed line across the entrance to a harbor. Close to it in all caps it's written COLREGS DEMARCATION LINE with an arrow pointing to the dashed line. Have a look and get back to us. Also, check that if so, is a Special Anchorage shown there where the boats are?

[C420sailor]

A Home Depot patio light does not meet USCG standards. So if we are going to play the ‘rules are rules’ game here, you aren’t complying with the rules.

[Jim Cate]

And absolutely no one, even commercial boats, display any lights in a mooring field.

That's a pretty inclusive statement, Chotu... and it is certainly incorrect, for we routinely show anchor lights, even on moorings, and sometimes see other vessels doing the same thing. When one has LED lamps with auto off/on switching, it requires no effort and unmeasurable battery drain, so compliance with the regs is easy, inexpensive and law abiding.

What's not to like? And what is the gain afforded by non-compliance with the law?

Jim

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by Auklet

Sir. You are adding nothing to this discussion. Have you missed this entire series of posts? Where is the anchorage? Can you read a chart? Is it shoreward of the COLREGES demarcation line? That's a dashed line across the entrance to a harbor. Close to it in all caps it's written COLREGS DEMARCATION LINE with an arrow pointing to the dashed line. Have a look and get back to us. Also, check that if so, is a Special Anchorage shown there where the boats are?

A very american perspective, you do realise don't you that things often differ beyond your shores.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by C420sailor

A Home Depot patio light does not meet USCG standards. So if we are going to play the ‘rules are rules’ game here, you aren’t complying with the rules.

If you're referring to my comment, then you missed the point. I specifically wrote that I don't care about the rules. I care about being seen (and seeing others).

Some have complained that it's not practical to light a boat that is moored long-term. Solar and proper LED anchor lights are apparently too expensive, or hard to install, for some. So I suggest in this case to spend $50 and get some cheap solar garden lights.

SOME light is better than none at all.


Again, for me it's not about the COLREGS, or any other law. It's about being seen. Why would you not want to be seen in the dark?

[JPA Cate]

Mike, the problem with the garden lights is that they get very, very dim as it gets into the larger of the wee hours, when one is most tired approaching them. This is in my experience, and I hate the darn things, they give a false sense of visibility to the owner, and they are hard as heck to see.

Ann

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by C420sailor

A Home Depot patio light does not meet USCG standards. So if we are going to play the ‘rules are rules’ game here, you aren’t complying with the rules.

Exactly!

Far too many "cheap" boaters (and especially sailors) think that a solar garden light will pass as an anchor light. It will not, especially as it nears dawn and the battery is nearly discharged.

Folks, if you cannot afford to equip your boat with proper lights, you cannot afford to own a boat.

[Auklet]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

A very american perspective, you do realise don't you that things often differ beyond your shores.

I do take the meaning of “International Rules” to be literal. I have sailed elsewhere. I know for example that in Australia the green channel markers are kept to starboard returning from sea, etc.; whereas in North America it’s “red right returning.” So, yes. In any event, the anchorage depicted is supposedly in Maine. If we’re to understand a point on the use of anchor lights or not in a field of moored yachts, we need to know its location relative to demarcation.