Sorry. Run out of space in the last post. Here, one last time, a summary:
RUNNING LIGHTS
RED OVER GREEN is a valid navlight option... that pbryant brings forward.
The Brits are well aware of the Red Over Green COLREGS Rule benefit. Might see it as a gift.
Here is a site I'm using for reference from http://www.boatlamps.co.uk/
The three lamp choices for Sailing Vessels Underway and Vessels Under Oars:
(consider what follows interpretive and not verbatim)*
...|Rule 25(a) Sailboat under sail only: Red and Green side lights, and 135 degree White stern light.
...|Optional. Rule 25(b) Sailboat under sail only: Combined tri-color. [No deck lights.]
...|Optional. lRule 25(c) Sailboat under sail only: Red and Green side lights, and 135 degree White stern light.
...|PLUS, in addition exhibit, where they can best be seen, two all-round lights in a vertical line: Red Over Green.
This is an acceptable option not required by law.
More lights make your boat more visible.
There is no other Colreg Rule that has VERTICAL Red over Green orientation.
That makes this exclusive color combination recognizable to larger boats, power boats, USCG as a SAILBOAT.
And that is why knight sailors like pbryant use them.
RUNNING UNDER SAIL WITH ENGINE
...|Rule 25(e): Sailboat motor sailing [partially or fully under power] Red and Green side lights, and 135 White stern light.
...|PLUS, [by Colregs Rule, a forward facing] White "masthead light" - showing with an arc of 225 degrees.
[Diagrams are nearly always consistent, that this 'mast headlight' is never shown at the top of the mast on a sailboat.]
The separation and height change of stern and masthead - for an all-round White light - in this Rule is expected to be seen on any POWER-DRIVEN VESSEL UNDERWAY (Whites at different Heights). An all-round MAST TOP WHITE LIGHT with side lights (NO STERN LIGHT) is permitted. The problem with this is that sailboat status is entirely given up by Colregs...along with the stern light, the r.o.g. can't be exhibited either!
Red and Green lights are always associated with sailing and power vessels moving under command.
ANCHORED OR AGROUND
There is no distinction between power and sailing vessels at anchor:
...|Rule 30(b): A vessel (at anchor) of less than 50 meters in length may exhibit an all-round White light where it can best be seen...
[No colored lights.]
This Rule holds for any vessel less than 12 meters that is aground.
For a vessel having no all-round white, imco, a sailboat exhibiting ONLY the two 135/225 White lights... will suffice.
.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................
No LED red-over-green (with anchor light) combo lamp is available in the market. Singles are available, but not from Hella.
AQUASIGNAL Series 34 LED All-Round Navigation Lights. White, Red, Green. Double-puck size: 3"D x 2.25H. Not meant to be stacked. Possibly a sort of s.s. wire cage can be constructed to make a single 'lantern' to hold three lights stacked: Red($222) over green($100) over white($100). Wires will have to run on the outside of the housings, as well as the cage material...but I imagine it can be accomplished so as to allow upkeep. Assume the small amounts of foreign material crossing the lens won't be noticable, or diminish apparent intensity of light. $$$ puts it way out of my budget.
Defender shows a shorter 34 model, 3"Dx1.25"H. Red, $240. Green, $100. White, $100. FisheriesSupply has the 2.25" Red for $140.57 and shows the list price as $200. Housing/lens: polycarbonate. Series 34 sealed light is a single emitter, rather than an array. CE - 3yrW.
The HELLA LED tri-color (plus all-round white) mast-top lamp is a very tidy 3.25"D x 3.75"H. 7yrW. (Defender $543 - holy smokes!) It is unique in that the light engine module is a donut with a shaft down the center that holds it to the top & bottom lamp housing. Easy to imagine all-round colored donuts like the anchor light stacked as a light engine instead of the tri-color: I began e-mail discussion with a Hella rep, asking if a single 3light all-round Colregs inspired lamp might have been contemplated by Hella.
Pretty sure my incurable curmudgeon status became apparent to him...and I was dismissed as a nutter.
LOPOLIGHT is a Danish company whose line of LED navlights are based on the hockey-puck model. They have had enough technical problems in the past to make their very appealing design seem unreliable. Easy to envision a red-over-green-plus-white lamp...but they don't go there.
pyacht.com sells an ALL LED 2nm combination White "masthead light"/ deck light ....(combo 225 degree steaming light/deck light). "Submersible" $556.95. 3.6"x3"x2". (In the same housing they sell a 3nm for over $800 !)
{Later EDIT: Colregs requires one meter separation between red over green lamps...see below.}
Neither the google search algorithm nor manufacturers nor venders are able to agree on what Colregs establishes as the Rule25(e) "masthead light."
As a useful modern sailboat product, the mast light combo has never completely made it into the present LED generation. Deck light function is still almost without exception a power sucking halogen. The AquaSignal deck light part of the combo I have is completely open and exposed - probably to dissipate bulb heat. Spreader lights have morphed into LED - why not the deck light? Possible to upgrade the masthead with an LED festoon, but not the decklight. No authority will recommend doing this.
AquaSignal, Hella8504, and Forespar masthead light combos have deck light incandescents. Assume none to be a sealed electrical fixture.
.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................
*The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, COLREGS can be printed out in a very nice 18pg form: www.bosunsmate.org/
And a whole raft of support material. You will find the 'Rule' quotes above fleshed out in their full bureaucratic rhetorical glory. Make a copy!
.................................................. .....................................
how does pbryant rig his red on green?
Reply With Quote