Pete,

Do yourself a big favor and DO NOT opt for the tricolour mastead light
allowed under colregs Rule 25b, especially if you plan to go offshore.
The problem is with visibility to other ships. Sure, they're easier to
see because they're high up, but on a dark night, where a watchkeeper
on a cargo ship may be judging your distance by the light's height on
the horizon, he may think that you're far away while you're almost up
against him.

Radar doesn't help the problem, because your small boat might not
return much of an echo. Normally, if you have a radar reflector, enough
of an echo is returned to show up on the screen, but in the case where
the officer of the watch sees your lights high on the horizon, and
thinks you're further away, he may not notice your echo very close to
the sea clutter at the center of his screen. I was sailing on a Panamax
bulker, last winter, and the captain told me how this had happened to
him. He came very close to a yacht, so close that he could see there
wasn't anyone steering, once he turned on the outside floodlights. As I
described above, he thought the vessel was further away, and made of a
material absorbing his radar waves, like wood or fibreglass. He finally
had a doubt when he noticed the bearing was altering quickly, and so he
turned on the floodlights. The yacht was about a hundred meters away on
the port side. Needless to say, there was panic and "hard-a-starboard".

Anyway, my point is that if you want masthead lights in order for ships
to spot you more easily, you should opt for the combination allowed
under rule 25c, which is all-round red over green at the masthead
combined with sidelights at the deck level, and a sternlight also at
deck level. Thus, you'll present Red-Green-Red, Red-Green-Green or
Red-Green-White to any approaching ship, which is guaranteed to
persuade even the thickest-headed Russian mate to shy from the course
line on his electronic chart.

-maxime camirand


pete wrote:
Hi guys, I'm just about to buy the nav lights for my 34 sailboat and
need a bit of advice on tricolour lights.
I reckon that the higher the nav lights the better and although none
of my previous boats had masthead tri colour lights I want to fit
those on my new one.
BUT I'm a bit confused about the use of what is advertised as a
combined tri/mooring light. Under sail there is no problem, but if
under motor, according to the colregs boats of my size may display a
white all round combined masthead and sternlight.
OK staightforward enough, but if using an all round white light
directly under the port and starboard masthead lights, will the white
all round light not make it harder for other boats to see the coloured
lights?

I have looked at a few new boats and they don't have any other
steaming light fitted. Is this just sloppy practice by the
boatbuilders or am I getting my knickers in a twist for nothing?