p bryant. Give this guy your full attention. Ebb is way too wordy and gets confused.
It's the end of the year almost -- I feel like this one, 2021, deserves a big boot, but
there are many confused and destructive souls around that only time can cure. At
the moment even a mutating virus is smarter than science.
MAST HEAD LIGHT CONFUSION
So I won't mention Colregs or IRPCS.
What is a steaming light? It is a FORWARD FACING NAV LIGHT.
It is not an ALL ROUND. It is a WHITE light displaying a 225 degree
forward facing arc. All boats have this light including freighters.
Sailboats have the same light so they are able to legally power
at night without using their sails. Along with a 360degree allround
tricolor at the top of a mast OR a spread of three red, green, and
white navigation lights at deck level. Never both at the same time.
At deck level We have red/green sidelights as a bi-color in the pulpit
and/or at the cabin's aft corners - also never lit at the same time.
The pulpit combo light even at IP67 is vulnerable and exposed.
Redundant side lights seems prudent..
Sailboats use the term 'mast head light' for a 225degree navlight
found above deck level usually mounted on the mast. We could use
a white stern light up there, but it would not be appropriate. These
days the forward facing light is combined with a down facing white
spot light. It is not a navigation light. At night it lights up the
foredeck (and messes with your night vision). And legally would not
be on at the same time as the steaming lamp.
How to keep this straight? Simple.. Consider and spell it
'mast HEADLIGHT',
like your wheels. That would arrange the other spelling as MASTHEAD
light. No single light we have nav lights up there ljke the tri-color,
port - stbd - stern - allround white light called ANCHORlight - never
used when the vessel is moving. We do NOT have a legal navigation
masthead light. You
certainly can call the tricolor mast-top a single fixture (sometimes the
combo nav light that sometimes may include the allround white anchor
lamp.) But mast headlight is better reserved as navigation
nomenclature for a forward facing white lamp of a vessel UNDER POWER.
And that is why a mast headlight is not at the mast head (mast top).
There is a movement afloat to sail at night offshore with
RED OVER GREEN,
allround nav lights that pbryant is a proponent. He has posted here and
elaborated on a Cruising site how to wire and switch the system. Serious
cruisers are unanimous in NOT obeying the single tricolor on a dark hull
directive. If you will, they say it's at your peril. But it is the current rule..
If you insist, I suggest for our boats a 3NM tricolor..
I've now gone with MARINEBEAM 3.5" x 3" plastic IP67 navlights. At the
moment I'll go with the redundancy of having a red/green bicolor in the
pulpit and a 2nd set on the cabin-trunk sides where the originals were.
Creative mounting require4d. $89 ea. 2021.
I chatted with mb & asked him if they had a R.O.G. in the works.. Nope.
They will have to come up with something soon, there's $$$ to be made
there. imco, in a dark & stormy night it's preferable to be lit up like a truck.
Marinebeam wld be reasonable and do it right.
pbryant has a solution that makes sense. He has mounted two allround
greens about a meter down his mast on the opposite port & starboard
sides when lit up throw enuf green to look green all round -- and with
the single red allround on the mast-top passes for R.O.G. (Green has double
the lumens but the red is in the alpha spot.) His single 3 position toggle
switch solution exists here or on the Cruising site, he hasn't revealed whose
allrounds he used. At night we'd probably have a reef in the main -- sure
I would! [This toggle switch is intuitive. Will find & record it here.]
MOST IMPORTANT.. we in R.O.G. at the same time are allowed to have our
DECK LIGHTS ON. And the ability to indicate the vessel's length with pulpit
and stern lights seems prudent. Red over Green, with its unique separation,
is instantly recognizable by professionals as a sailboat under sail.
R.O.G. is for an offshore boat under sail at night. Personally, sailing r.o.g.
I wld have the pulpit bi-color on, the cabin mounted green and red off,
and stern light on. And the r.o.g. instantly registers with the lookout
size, type, direction, location and speed of the interloper. If lookout on the
other vessel isn't responding, I'd probably use a wildly agitated spotlight.
Or a flare!~!
Some time ago evidently I followed thru on this & lo found in my stash 3
allround HELLA LAMPS: two green, one red. Base is 3", stand-out about
3", which is a stretch for an apparent single lamp 3"+mast 3.5"+3". 2NM
- LED - CE - 9-33V. Found inside the blister-pac: IP67. $105.99 ea. 6/2018.
Take care..
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