That is the title of a thread with a number of interesting posts, pro and con, LED vs incandescent. www.sailnet.com > > Skills and Seamanship > pg 4 of the menu of threads: Seamanship & Navigation.
To follow is a verbatim from pg 6 of the 'dangers' thread:
10.23.2013 posted by capta:
I was on watch steaming south through the Anegada Passage one night some years back, wide awake and sober by the way, on a freighter. Bridge height about 60 feet.
From the port bridge wing I saw a red or green light (I don't remember which) ahead, and it appeared to be a mile or more away.
I walked into the bridge to check the radar and out of the corner of my eye saw that light pass close to the port bridge wing.
I ran out and saw about a 40' sailing boat under full sail sliding aft no more than 10 feet from the ship!
I had already completed a circumnavigation under sail and numerous transAts and transPacs before this,
so I was an experienced sailor and would not ignore a sailboat's lights or take them lightly.
Ever since that night I have been passionately against masthead tricolor and consider them to be incredibly dangerous.
A single colored or white disembodied light gives absolutely No depth/distance perception
and no light at all shines on the water, boat or sails.
Several times on Long Island Sound, I have had other boats masthead running lights obscured by my bimini
and thought the guy an idiot, sailing unlit!
You can do as you please, but nothing on earth would ever convince me to sail under one.
[capta tags his post with this quote;]
"Any idiot can make a boat go - it takes a sailor to stop one." Spike Africa aboard the schooner Wanderer in Sausalito, CA 1964
This is a post essentially taken out of context from a lengthly thread.
Here's two cents:
It is not known what time period this close-call occurred. nor does it matter. The operative is the single light shining out of each
segment of the tri-color light. In this story, the tri-color could have been incandescent. Or the tricolor could have had single emitter LED for each color. Take capta's experience as something that could have happened to anybody on that bridge. That, of course, is the point...
.....The only lamp that can have an all-round emitter display (30 or 40, or more) is the all-round Red over Green. The sheer
number of LEDs in each color will exhibit a more unique concentration of light (even if limited to 2NM) than a single emitter. Imco.
This sounds like a plug for LEDs. And I could be convinced that multiple array LEDs White over Red over Green isn the ONLY way to go
to legally create better light for our sailboat at night. I'll be looking for 3NM for the mast-top!!!
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Interesting that the implied deck-level lights at sea may be more useful for the freighter to visually ID the sailboat.
The tri-color (at 34' above the water on an Ariel) probably produces NO SHINE ON THE WATER.
Colregs allows no other specific lights with a mast-top tri-color. Legally NO nav lights below!
Maybe mentioned in this thread, have heard that some sailors display inside cabin lights to help tell-tale the boat.
For the sailboat under power (propeller) the Colregs required "masthead light" found as a combo 15 feet off the deck on an A/C is a light that could be used tactically to show the boat in an emergency. The deck light cannot be used because it compromises night vision. However:
Given the lack of information a lookout on a freighter's bridge has when it comes to identifying sitting ducks under sail,
I'm now looking for an extra 2NM LED UP LIGHT for the front of the mast (at 15 feet) to be mounted on top of the 225 to shine straight up the mast, light it up, and any sail up there. Obviously help wake-up a lookout's attention to....whatn the hell is that boat out there?
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LED RETROS?
MaineSail has a couple photos of a lengthly shelf talker promanently displayed in his local Hamilton Marine store.
Emphasizes that lamps are CG certified as designed fixtures, not by bulb inside, and taking out an incandescent and substituting an LED could be bad news in a number of ways..... Read it, same page as the post I've quoted above....well worth the visit.
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LED REPLACEMENTS
Later EDIT. The Aqua-Signal 25 10W12A masthead/deck light combo is, imco, a temporary fixture. The mandated 225 degree mast headlight should be in its own waterproof IP68 case. This fixture is not waterproof. It cannot be made waterproof with goop or gasket. The electrical contacts for the bulbs are not protected, especially the deck light function. This fixture was designed by a half-brained idiot. This is not marine equipment. Merely correct marine décor for chumps like me.
It's now about a year later, and led trade-outs for incandecent bayonets and festoons are well established. One source for led replacements is Dr Led. This company has experienceed too many failures to be a trustworthy source. Cruiser's Forum and SaiNet by count have dozens of sailors complaining. One ledapple tree loaded with rotten apples. You can tell from the Specifications that certain important things are missing from the descriptions of the bulbs. Country of origin might be one important to you. But another is the CE symbol which guarantees that EMFs are at a minimum to strict standards. DON"T USE DR. LED LEDS IN YOUR masthead combo.
Go to Marinebeam.com. Look at the difference between the bayonet decklight offered by Marinebeam and Dr L. This is the exposed socket on the mast. Dr L's is an unprotected cluster of chips, but the M. has a single 5W Cree emitter protected by a glass 30degree spot lens. At 16ft up the mast, this bulb should make a 8'D of light.
Replacement for the BA9S mini-bayonet is the BA9S Replacement SKU-9S-5W --$18 2W#,150mS (150lumens)
Replacement Festoon SV8.5 is the 42mm/44mm Festoon LED Navigation Light Cone End Type Mini-Max. SKU FS-42-30C --$25 Constant Current Wattage 3.2W, 270mA. (175lumens). CE and RoHS compliant. Technically sound.
Read Jeff Field's www.marinebeam.com/ "What You Need To Know Before Buying LED Cluster Lighting For Your Yacht"
(Read it? Now you know why you didn't waste your money on Dr. LED ! !)
These replacements are designed to be correct for the A-S fixture.
Only possible caveat is that both emitters are cool white. Which is OK, as long as the light is not a blue wash.
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