Navigation lights

[antonywardle]

HI

I was looking on the RTA site for information about nav lights, and I'm getting a bit confused

http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/sbh/safety_on_the_water/nightsafety.html#placement

This says

Vessels under 12 metres

• Separate or combined sidelights; a masthead light and a stern light; or
• Separate or combined sidelights and an all round white light.

The masthead or white all round light shall be carried at least one metre above the sidelights.

So I need a masthead light and a stern light ? The picture on the website only shows one

or does that mean that the masthead light is also a stern light.

Also getting a light more than a metre up might be a slight challenge if I want to more around the

boat easily

What do other people do?

[stevefish]

The mast head and stern light is a sailing boat thing.

You need red/green nav lights and an all round white light. The rules say it should be at the highest point on the boat or 1m above the nav lights although that can be hard on a tinny.

Try and keep the all round white out of your eye line to keep your night vision

[antonywardle]

thanks for that

I'll see what i can do

[BWV]

The mast head and stern light is a sailing boat thing.

You need red/green nav lights and an all round white light. The rules say it should be at the highest point on the boat or 1m above the nav lights although that can be hard on a tinny.

Try and keep the all round white out of your eye line to keep your night vision

Mast head light is a power boat thing! Not a sail boat thing, stern light is for all vessels.

A masthead light shows an arc of 225 degrees and a stern light light show an arc of 135 degrees. Add them together 360 degrees. This is where the all round light comes into play on vessels under 12 meters because you can't see the separation of the two lights anyway so you can run the all round white light to achieve the same result.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Whaler 255

[Danieljc]

Silly question to this, Does this mean if I want to fish at night I need to run the nav lights and the stern light as well. Or can I just get away with the Nav lights Red/Green only. Thanks

[Fab1]

Silly question to this, Does this mean if I want to fish at night I need to run the nav lights and the stern light as well. Or can I just get away with the Nav lights Red/Green only. Thanks

At night when underway or drifting you need both the nav lights and stern light illuminated.

When stationary at anchor you need the all round white light(stern light,anchor light illuminated) only and the red/green port and starboard lights off.

Just remember when underway all lights on.

When anchored only stern light on.

Cheers.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Fab1

[Danieljc]

Cheers, looks like I better try and fix the stern light

[macman]

Which means that in your tinny you need to have them (all round and red/greens) on separate switches. I got a bullocking one night from the maritime blokes while fishing under the Captain Cook bridge. I had the lights turned off, they came up and spoke to me, I turned them on and they gave me another bullocking for not having them on separate switches Learnt a lesson and they explained that just because you are in the bright light of the bridge, doesn't mean that boats can see you at night.

Matt

[Danieljc]

Turned out it was a just a correded wire on the negative side. So hooked up a new pole and base rewired and worked. Was pretty good as it gave enough light to see at the back of the boat.

Mine are on seperate switches but will be replacing the anchor light with a mast light as it is at the wrong height and when sitting down you look straight at it. So will wire up a mast head light on the weekend.

[zmk1962]

Not sure what type of boat you have Danieljc, but if your boat is a half cabin type, one thing you might want to consider is installing a flat plastic shield (visor) underneath your mast light so that it casts a shadow across you boat foredeck. I used to have a mast light at the top of my windscreen, at night it lit up my boats white foredeck and I found it really reduced my night vision having this white deck reflecting back at me.

I initially fixed that problem by inserting a plastic flat plate (a shield or visor) to cast a shadow across the fore deck, later when I reworked the bimini I moved the light up with the rocket launchers and now the bimini casts a shadow over the fore deck. Just something to consider.

[Danieljc]

Thanks ZMK, its a Savage Lancer SL580 cuddy cab. The mast light will be going onto the rocket launchers, as there is a plate there for it already and whilst there I am going to install a flood light to light the back of the boat up.

[zmk1962]

Great idea. Put the flood light on a separate circuit/switch so that it can be turned on/off independently of your mast light. BTW, if you have fished at night you will now how "little" light you need to see around the deck. So rather then a proper flood light I would lean toward one of those those waterproof cabin lights that have a red/white light option. Last year I picked up and LED one at a very reasonable price (around $30). The red light will preserve your night vision.

[Danieljc]

I'll have a look around havent decided on the light yet. As have trailer issues to contend with first as well as waiting on a new sounder VHF radio and standard radio/mp3 player to be installed next week.