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Navigation Lights - Mast Light Placement

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I had to look it up too, and remained confused, even more so than usual, for the rest of the day.

Now I ask myself, if a steaming light is of restricted view by design-why?

The idea seems to be that a vessel under power seen from the stern quadrant shows one white light (the stern light).

But a vessel coming toward you under power shows red or green, or both, and one white (the steaming light).

Yes?
 
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Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I had to look it up too, and remained confused, even more so than usual, for the rest of the day.

Now I ask myself, if a steaming light is of restricted view by design-why?

The idea seems to be that a vessel under power seen from the stern quadrant shows one white light (the stern light).

But a vessel coming toward you under power shows red or green, or both, and one white (the steaming light).

Yes?

Yup.
:cool:
 

RenDe

Member II
I had to look it up too, and remained confused, even more so than usual, for the rest of the day.

Now I ask myself, if a steaming light is of restricted view by design-why?

The idea seems to be that a vessel under power seen from the stern quadrant shows one white light (the stern light).

But a vessel coming toward you under power shows red or green, or both, and one white (the steaming light).

Yes?

Yes its more about knowing when a steaming vessel is coming toward you. So you can make right of way decisions.
 
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frick

Member III
An important Light Bulb Trick

My 1971 E 29 never had an all round Anchor light. The masthead light or steaming light was just above the spreaders. The rest of me Nav lights are on the deck.

Here is my important light bulb trick.
Always use a dialectical Greece on the bottom of the bulbs. There will run for decades without editional cleaning.

Rick
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
As a practical matter, I recorded this rule of thumb for containerships at sea at night seen from deck of a yacht.

10 miles--one dim white light on horizon, may be mistaken for a rising star.

8 miles -- Unmistakably one bright white light.

6 miles -- Color appears, red or green, in confusing diffusion of whiteness.

5 miles -- Very clear identification of colored light. "Larger" than any white lights. First certainty of both red and green.

4 miles --No doubt about it.

3 miles--Bleedin' circus of deck lights, looks like Memorial Day at a used car lot approaching rather fast.

2 miles--If both red and green observed, 90-degree turn away already instituted. Bible out and open. Do not spill Jack Daniels on Bible. Our speed 6 knots. Containership speed 20 knots.

1 mile--a floating city passes with stupendous sound of throbbing engines, lit like Times Square and considerably more conspicuous that my LED running lights burning half an amp.

The numbers may seem conservative, but are made so by the interference of an active seaway and a low topsides (trough and mist obscure the view). But AIS gives a reliable record of what is seen at what distance. It also provides collision-course warning far in advance, before the sight of red and green approaching. An actual collision course at sea is a defiance of odds, since there are 360 points on the compass. Yet twice the AIS warned that a ship 5 miles away would come within .10 nm of us. Time to alter course.

Of course a yacht, unlike a ship, can yaw through 20 degrees in a seaway, one's "course" is not good data. But a "Collision Alarm", as my AIS calls a .10 nm "Closest Point of Approach, " does successfully win the attention.

Yacht running lights? Not very important offshore. Previously it was the odds that got us there (except for Slocum and all the other disappearances). With AIS there is no reason to get run down, and it's easy to know when to get out of the way.
 

Second Star

Member III
IAW Annex 1 of the International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea (Rules of the Road) the masthead light on a vessel of less than 12 meters must be carried at least 1 meter above the sidelights which must be no higher above the waterline than 3/4 of the height of the masthead light
 

garryh

Member III
good point, There is no such thing as 'right of way'.
The #1 rule is: "Avoid a collision, whatever you have to do"
 
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