pbryant has a full statement over at the SailNetCommunity site on a current thread:
Red over Green Navigation Light. This is a revelation to me. Fantastic!
I'm eager to collect Patrick's tips, like that historic tried and true lineman's splice!
And recommendations for Kester rosin core solders. Having poisoned myself over the
centuries, I've a biosystem backlogged with toxins - which is why I'm so strong
on using green materials when available. Maybe I do tin.
What SIZE solder do you have around? I'll probably get one more roll this lifetime.
Plug in soldering iron OK?...garage sale?
And I see tube shrink wrap + glue comes in 4foot lengths in many diameters...
what's a reasonable variety of width and colors to do all new rewiring of Ariel338?
Sounds like an investment just for wrap! Thank you for your help!
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Can't find an all-round-red/all-round-green combined lamp - in the market.
....imco an all-round mast-top lamp must be combined with all-round white 'anchor' light.
As well as a strobe for the white. Freighter at sea - no can see me - no can me see.
(I can 'see' the lamp... stack of LED hockey pucks. The NewSealanders (Hella) can do it.)
SAILING VESSEL UNDERWAY. COLREGS Rule 25:
(a) a sailing vessel underway shall exhibit i) sidelights and ii) sternlight.
(b) In a sailing vessel of less than 20 meters length the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) of this Rule, may be combined in one lantern carried at or near the top of the mast where it can be best seen.
(c) A sailing vessel underway may, in addition to the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) of this Rule, exhibit at or near the top of the mast, where it best can be seen,
two all-round lights in a vertical line, the upper being red and the lower green,
but these lights shall not be exhibited in conjunction with the combined lantern permitted by paragraph (b) of this Rule. [tri-color]
...
We can therefor exhibit a combined Red Over Green mast-top light in addition to the required red and green side lights and white stern light at the gunwale (boat-deck) level. Can not show masthead tri-color together with deck side lights. Or tri-color with R.O.G.
Assume we have legal deck lights showing when maneuvering near shore under sail after dark.
We are permitted at this time to ALSO exhibit a mast-top Red Over Green. [imco, the more moving colored light you can legally show over a dark backdrop - as when approaching the marina at night, with confusing dots of white light from dwellings, streets and freeways - the better!]
PLEASE CONFIRM THIS INTERPRETATION.
When we are under power with the sails up, we are by definition motorsailing and shall have no mast-top lights of any kind exhibited.
A small racer/cruiser will have the 'half mast' steaming light* ON. Plus the three deck lights - red-green-white ON.
*225 degree forward white light corresponds with the 135 degree stern light. (for 360 degree all round white.)
Commonly referred to as a masthead light, it could, imco, be called the mast HEADlight (forward facing)..... avoiding some confusion.
POWER DRIVEN VESSELS UNDERWAY. The >steaming< light is a navigation light. This is a popular term - not Colregs - probably created to solve the confusion between masthead light and masthead lightS. It is otherwise defined in Colregs Rule 21(a) as follows:
{Colregs uses these unusual quote marks, probably to draw attention that this lamp is not to be confused with mast top lights}
"Masthead light" means a whitelight placed forward over the fore-and-aft centerline of the vessel showing an unbroken light over an arc of horizon of 225 degrees and so fixed as to show the light from right ahead to 22.5 degrees abaft the beam on either side of the vessel.
Rule 23(d)(i) A power-driven vessel of less than 12 meters in lieu of the lights prescribed in paragraph 9(a)[larger vessels] of this Rule exhibits an all-round white light and sidelights.
The only light taller - on a moving power-driven boat - than red and green side light is an all-round white light. It can be assumed, imco, that if the stern light is OFF and the half-mast "masthead" 225 degree light is OFF**, AND side lights ON.... then the all-round mast-top white(anchor)light can be used instead...when motoring. [**because, maybe a 15foot off the deck "masthead light" is spilling too much light and interfering with "looking into the night".] An all-round white on the mast top on a moving power-driven sailboat doesn't compute for me.....
Why are the split 225/135 more acceptable? {Ebb, the reason is that a single all-round White can be interpreted as a boat anchored or aground.)
The combo down light option is not part of the Rules. [When wiring, imco, the foredeck light should be isolated from navlight panels.]
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HELLA TRI-COLOR and ANCHOR LIGHT mast-top lamp. As some already know, this is an extremely expensive LED navigation light. (No moreso than the competition.) Seems very well made. LOOKS expensive. Electronics are isolated and forever sealed inside a transparent elongated donut referred to as the 'light engine'. The hole is occupied by a hollow 316 10mm shaft that clamps the two basic parts together. There is an access wafer on top of the housing that when turned by a coin exposes the shaft's 19mm nyloc hex nut. When the nut is removed, the clear donut section can be lifted out, gaining access to the electrical plug connector. An 18" lead exits the housing through a rubber grommet out the bottom. The bottom section is fitted with a heavy cast plate that secures the center shaft - with 3 thru holes provided for fastening the lamp base to the mast... via a bracket, most likely. Date of manufacture etched on the rigid nylon polyamide lens [not acrylic or lexan.] Tri-color consumes less than 4W combined. All round less than 2W.
Contacted Hella - APAC & Middle East...Sales Manager immediately replied that the silver dollar sized access lid to the nut on top of the housing - which is not O-ringed against water
- doesn't provide a seal because the shaft that holds the lamp together isn't waterproof - even tho it is contained in and inhabits the center of the lamp.
My second question about the port and starboard LED, confirms that the emitters themselves are red and green.
The small transparent red/green covers over the emitters inside are cosmetic*** - making the lamp's DIY orientation visual. Naked stern light and topmost all-round white emit thru clear all-round lens. We assume that colored plastic does not restrict or alter the color of the side emitters.
Haven't found anything negative on the web about this tri-color.....except its price.
[***the colored material is unnecessary, imco. The light engine module is sealed, covers cannot be removed.]
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RED OVER GREEN - what does it mean? When sighted, it will instantly ID the light as SAILBOAT. A good thing offshore.
Why not integrate this exceptional SAILBOAT SPECIFIC navigation aid with our little ships... before Rule25(c) is removed from Colregs for lack of use?
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