DARat wrote:
Just a few notes on terminology he
A masthead is the forward portion of the mast, not the mast-top which is
the top.
Therefore, it is impossible to have a 360 masthead light in a single
light...
The term steaming light has been substituted many times to try to
eliminate the confusion
associated with the "mast-head" light.


Although I see what you're getting at here, I'm going to disagree a bit.
"Masthead" refers to the arc of visibility more than it's location (on
the mast-top or forward portion of the mast) since it can be located on
top of a mast, pole ....
You are correct, in that an "all-around" light should not be called a
"masthead", but it's because of it's 360 deg arc of visibility.
It's also possible to refer to that portion of the arc of a 360 deg
light which encompasses 225 deg (rt ahead to 2 pts abaft, either side)
as the "masthead" portion of that light.
The "steaming" light refers to the masthead light, but in some boats it
can also refer to the 360 deg light.
My point here, is that there are a number of ways to address these
terms, and it's more important that two people in a discussion
understand the possibilities and settle on which terms are being used.

otn