Quality LED masthead anchor light

[intervivos]

Stepping the mast to do a through rig inspection, would like to replace the old anchor light with a quality LED unit. Looking at the signal mate LED with auto on/off, but would like to know if folks have any other suggestions. Cost isn't really an issue, just want something that will work for a long time and not interfere with VHF and such. Link to the unit is below, should I be considering something else? Any advice or opinions are welcome!

https://defender.com/en_us/signal-ma...n-off-3nm360wp

[alctel]

The ones at marinebeam.com are all really nice

[Orin]

First let me say, whatever LED you choose it’s wise to run shielded cable and bond the shield at your vessels common bonding point. LEDs work off such low power that I’ve heard of, in at least one case, the lights were coming on from the static in the air. Shielded cable will prevent this sort of thing and also will help prevent EMF from interfering with your VHFs. Many of these NAV lights use HF signals over the power to communicate with the fixture when installed. Or so say or lopolight and Glamox reps.

High quality you say?
https://www.lopolight.com/products/n...ilver-anodized

If you do buy them various places on the web are cheaper than their website.

Lopolight and Aquasignal make high quality lights for marine use that are in many ways excellent.

Aquasignal starts out with lower price point lights. Both companies make 100,000 hour mttf lights and they’re big players in shipping and workboats.

[Dockhead]

Unless Lopo have significantly increased their quality in the last few years, I would avoid those. They are notoriously unreliable and replacing failed gear at the top of the mast is a PITA.


I have an Aquasignal LED Series 34 combined anchor light and tricolor, which I used only because it fit the socket originally installed. It has been fine without any issues for going on 10 years now.


Can't say the same about the Aquasignal LED Series 44 side lights I installed at the same time -- these have a fatal flaw in that a spade connector extends outside of the housing and is quickly corroded off by seawater. I had constant problems with them. I guess you could pot the connection or something but I instead changed them for Hella LED sidelights which are completely sealed including a fairly long cable lead. Worse quality, worse optics than the Aquasignal, but I have higher hopes that they will last, which the Aquasignal ones did not.



The Aquasignal side lights I had were the larger Series 44 ones. The Series 33 might be sealed with its own cable; I'm not sure.

[neilpride]

Aquasignal hands down.

Lopo are wonderful but if they fail there is no option, just lower it from the top of the mast and replace it.

[Orin]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Unless Lopo have significantly increased their quality in the last few years, I would avoid those. They are notoriously unreliable and replacing failed gear at the top of the mast is a PITA.
.

That interesting. We had a string of failures all resultant from using an incorrect cable outside diameter. Despite this being our fault Lopolight was pretty generous with their warrantee. After they were replaced we’ve not had any further issues with any of our installs. Granted most of that’s before my time here.

We’ve currently got a couple of Lopolight systems going in and an Aquasignal. So far no complaints. Granted we’re using series 61 aqua signal lights and have good access to support on these.

[BAD ORCA]

Peters and Bey. Very high quality. All electrical potted in resin. Not cheap though.

[MerMike]

I've had Marinebeam nav and anchor lights installed for 4 years now with zero issues.

[CarinaPDX]

Do you really want just an anchor light? While you are at it get a combined anchor/tricolor light. Originally I went with such a unit to cut down on power consumption, in the days of 25W incandescent bulbs, but the fact that the light can be seen in heavy seas (not true with deck-level lights) is valuable. My preference is for the LunaSea unit, which is very high quality but also affordable.

Greg

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by neilpride

Aquasignal hands down.

Lopo are wonderful but if they fail there is no option, just lower it from the top of the mast and replace it.

I have seen issues with the Aquasignal "quickfits" system. If they are still available without that I would recommended Aquasignal, but it quickfits is the only option they would be near my last choice.

The quick fits system the light is in 2 parts, with a pin and sleeve electrical connection between the two. That connection was unreliable and didn't work well (on a buddy's boat) and required frequent trips up the mast to clean and adjust. I often did that for him as he didn't like going up the mast. The thing looks engineered to fail.

The older system (on my boat) is a bit more difficult to install but I have not looked at it in about 7 years and is still works fine.

[GoAway]

Signalmate.com. Very high quality navigation lights and great customer support.

[Constellation49]

We have purchased Weems and Plath LED navigation lights for our build. Pricey but solid built. They did have a lengthy lead time for a few of them during our purchase but may not now.

LED Navigation Lights

[smj]

Originally Posted by Constellation49

We have purchased Weems and Plath LED navigation lights for our build. Pricey but solid built. They did have a lengthy lead time for a few of them during our purchase but may not now.



LED Navigation Lights

Didn’t they take over ORCA green marine in Annapolis?

[moonmist]

Check these out scialeds@outlook.com Sailing L.E.D light with double function, Navigation Tricolor and Anchor for masthead with 2 nm range. PVC Shell encapsulated with resin, completely waterproof, accomplish with IP68. UV protection. Vane light. Mounting by Stainless steel bar. Two connections ways for the same product: 3 conductors (- Negative, +Tricolor y + Anchor) or the same cable can work with 2 conductors and polarity inversion (includes inversion switch key). Accomplish with COLREG by IMO and with CE generic EMC standards (There is no specific EU standard for LED navigation lights). Consumption is less than 80mA in Tricolor and 60mA in Anchor at 13,5V.

[SV Coronado]

I have the Signal Mate tri-color with the photocell switched anchor light and love it - highly recommended! It's very bright, both the nav lights and the anchor light. I love switching on my anchor light when I've dropped the hook and switching it off only when I leave.