Affordable masthead combination anchor light and tricolour recommendations.

[CarinaPDX]

Perhaps a little more info on LEDs would clarify things. LEDs emit a single wavelength of light; the earliest was red, followed by yellow and green, then finally blue (which was very difficult) in the visible spectrum, and now ultra-violet (above blue) and infra-red (below red). There is no such thing as a white LED, technically speaking. Those things sold as white LEDs are actually blue LEDs covered with a phosphor-containing coating, which absorbs some of the blue light and re-radiates it as other colors so that along with the blue they fool the eyes into seeing white. In the same way an RGB display shows white by emitting red, green, and blue. Fluorescent bulbs start with a blue light from the mercury vapor discharge, which in turn excites the phosphors on the inside of the glass tube, so is very much like a "white" LED. The point being that the "white" LED is emitting a lot of blue, and usually some green and red light. The lenses on an approved nav light are designed to only pass a range of green or red (or white). What we see when looking at a white LED inside a green nav light is that range of emitted light that can pass the filter, which usually isn't that bright and tends towards blue instead of green. Similarly red tends not to be very bright, but usually truer than the green.

The only LED bulbs that should be used inside nav light fixtures should be ones that emit the correct wavelength, without phosphors. Save the "white" LEDs for stern, anchor, or masthead (steaming) lights. These days it is easy to find LED tri-color bulbs that have green and red LEDs in the appropriate sectors, with white for stern and optionally anchor. These are color-accurate, bright, and efficient; they can also be USCG approved. There is no excuse for putting an all-white LED into a tri-color fixture, and the result is very inferior.

Greg

[Quebramar]

Thanks Greg, that’s brilliant (no pun intended LOL)!
Happy to hear the full story, very clear.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Midnight Son

GILow
I have been using Hella lights for 40 years off and on. Can't fault the quality at any time.


Cheers, stay safe

Good to know, thank you. Mine should arrive in a week. Until then, no night sails for me. (Though I’ve still got the deck level lights for motoring.... I guess I ca. Use those u der sail too... must check the rules.)

[GILow]

Originally Posted by CarinaPDX

Perhaps a little more info on LEDs would clarify things....

Thank you Greg, for the great summary, you saved me from wading through a lot of stuff on Wikipedia, because I was curious.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by GILow

Good to know, thank you. Mine should arrive in a week. Until then, no night sails for me. (Though I’ve still got the deck level lights for motoring.... I guess I ca. Use those u der sail too... must check the rules.)

Deck level port/stbd/stern are perfectly legal when sailing.... in fact they are the better option in coastal waters but that subject has already been beaten to death often enough on CF.

[CarlF]

I would take this opportunity to get rid of the tri-color. The things are very difficult to see from the bridge of a ship - too often they look like stars or shoreside lights.

The tricolor is left over from when small sailboats had very little electricity to power lights when sailing and bulbs took 10 times as much power as today's LED's.

You already have the proper bow and stern lights for use when powering (with a steaming light) - if mounted on top of the bow and stern pulpit those are far easier to see for collision avoidance than the one at the masthead.

An even better idea allowed by COLREGS when sailing - that no one does - would be to put a red over green 360 light at the masthead when sailing along with the bow and stern lights. That would get noticed!

And remember it's illegal to use the tri-color when you have the engine on. If you ever have a collision while using a tricolor and with the engine on, you'll be liable in court and your insurance company may deny coverage.

Take the money you save on the new tri-color (and a few hundred more) to install an AIS transponder. Do you really want to count on a tired watch officer 80ft up on a 800ft container ship squinting through binoculars to notice a little 2 mile light when all the other ships he's worried about conveniently show up right on his AIS display?

[mlydon]

I picked up the lunasea tricolore/anchor/strobe last year. Very affordable at $200, but mor importantly, very well built. Aluminium and glass, with an anti-bird spike that can be replaced with a windex, does all the functions on only 3 wires, and drains very little amperage.

It’s very small, too - only about 3x3 inches. Awesome anchor light - very bright - my boat is about 1/2 mile from shore in the mooring field, still the brightest out there. I can easily tell which is mine....Has a daytime cutoff, too.

VERY happy with it.

Matt

[Jim Cate]

I would take this opportunity to get rid of the tri-color. The things are very difficult to see from the bridge of a ship

Carl, we get this posted by folks from the merchant fleet fairly often, and I surely don't deny your professional opinions.

However, we in our small yachts have to consider collisions with other small(ish) vessels as well as your behemoths, and for folks with low watchkeeping stations, the tricolor is easier to see than deck level lights (which are often obscured by waves or sails).

I'm pretty sure that Matt (the op) already has AIS on board, as do most offshore yotties these days, and that is a huge help for us as well as for you big guys. In fact, I now worry far more about fishing vessels than large ships in terms of collision avoidance, for the probability of competent watchkeeping is far higher in ships and I have reliable AIS plus recognized lighting to be seen by those who bother looking. And I damn sure keep a good watch for all vessels, large and small.

So, in Matt's place, I believe that a masthead tricolor, plus his AIS is a good idea.

Jim

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by mlydon

I picked up the lunasea tricolore/anchor/strobe last year. Very affordable at $200, but mor importantly, very well built. Aluminium and glass, with an anti-bird spike that can be replaced with a windex, does all the functions on only 3 wires, and drains very little amperage.

It’s very small, too - only about 3x3 inches. Awesome anchor light - very bright - my boat is about 1/2 mile from shore in the mooring field, still the brightest out there. I can easily tell which is mine....Has a daytime cutoff, too.

VERY happy with it.

Matt

I have a Lunasea too, but I'm much less impressed than you are. It was wired incorrectly (backwards) from the factory and it leaked current into the base- especially bad on an aluminum boat. It got fixed/replaced, but the new one has since corroded and looks like hell.... but at least it doesn't leak current into the mast anymore.

Matt

[GILow]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Deck level port/stbd/stern are perfectly legal when sailing.... in fact they are the better option in coastal waters but that subject has already been beaten to death often enough on CF.

That does ring a bell. The whole flogged to death bit I mean.

[bronze]

SCIALEDS, on amazon, simple, bulletproof, 3nm , have put them on 3 yachts now since forever ago. While circumnavigating have been asked dozens of times by other cruisers where we got such awesome bright lighting.

[CaptMDG]

I have the Marine Beam Anchor Light - Tricolor - SOS light. It is LED & the anchor light has a photocell to turn on/off automatically. It works wonderfully.

[bernsm]

I just bought a Lunasea Navigation Tri/Anchor Light/Flash from Hodges Marine for $187. Tested and recommended by Practical Sailor magazine. I'm very impressed with the quality - body machined aluminum, very bright 4W LEDs and the emergency strobe feature.

[n5ama]

I’ve seen the Hella tri color mast lights on eBay that use incandescent bulbs for less than $100 new.

Is it possible to retrofit one of these fixtures with a LED bulb ($50-70) and come away with Hella unit for under $200?

It seems to be a logical solution if the bulb swap works.

[sailorxyz]

Another vote for Hella... I have been using Hella LED navigation lights for more than 15 years now. They have proved to be trouble free and still look like the day they were installed.