Input on Rope Lighting

[chadlaroche]

LED rope lighting, Im thinking of running a 1 green strand and 1 red strand on my lifelines to duplicate my nav lights. Am I legal while underway and at anchor? Its just a passing idea....

[Chief Engineer]

Unless you are decorating for a Christmas Parade of Lights.......

[sailvayu]

Far out man its groovy, but not legal lol

Crap I am probably giving away my age lol

[David M]

It would be illegal to use them as a substitute for your side lights.

It would be illegal to use them if they distract or could cause confusion with you side lights.

If you are in a marine parade for the evening, go for it!

At anchor, as long as you are showing an anchor light, you're fine with the Christmas lights.

[Auspicious]

Tacky.

[David M]

Also, any backscatter would reduce your night vision.

[Microship]

All of the above, and I would be surprised if the available rope light hardware has anything remotely approaching adequate sealing for a salt-water environment.

[Cormorant]

FWIW, we have two 6-foot strings of warm white LED light rope in our cockpit -- one port and one starboard. It consumes about 1W per foot, so 12W altogether -- equivalent to one old-fashioned xenon bulb. We can flick them on or off as needed. At anchor, in the evening, if you want to sit in the cockpit and have dinner or a drink, they're a wonderful addition. I've used them in pre-dawn darkness to go lie out there and read a book without waking everyone up in the cabin. I suppose you could leave them on all night as "deck lights" in addition to your anchor light.

[Rhythmsmith]

Cormorant, where did you get your LED rope lights? I am thinking about doing something similar for my cockpit.

[Cormorant]

I bought them on Ebay. Do a search there for "12v warm white led light rope" They cost about $21 (shipping included) per 6' rope. They are not "marine grade," but I used some silicone sealant on the end caps, and they have held up very well over a couple of years of part-time cruising.

[Bill_E]

I've been thinking about several uses of LED ropes. One is to put a couple of strands in the salon for general lighting and the second is in the cockpit as Cormorant has done. I've replaced some of my festoon bulbs in my interior lights with LEDs and actually got more light in my berths and salon as a result.

I kind of like the "bright" ones rather than "warm" for reading and working. Maybe it's just my age and eyes!

[imagine2frolic]

I bought them at Wal-Mart, and if memory serves me correctly they were very inexpensive. They will be for sale now with X-Mas coming. We strung the perimeter of the bimini with them. We only used them while at the dock, but they had a nice ambiance...........i2f

[senormechanico]

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