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Red over green mast lights for sailboat
"otnmbrd" wrote in message .net... Lee Huddleston wrote: snip From what others have posted or e-mailed to me directly, the option is pretty rare. But, if you were to see it again, because it is unusual it probably would grab your attention. That is what I am trying to achieve. Even if the observer didn't know what the lights meant, at least he/she would recognize that something different was out there and probably stay clear. And, of course, it is the big boys out there that can do me the most harm. Professional skippers of large commercial boats are more likely to know what the lights mean. BG Most likely, they'll have the same reaction I remember having ....HUH? .... ohhhhhh ......Dang, don't see THAT too often. When you saw the lights in use where you able to see how the lights were installed? The biggest problem seems to be how to keep them from being blocked by the mast. It has been suggested that two lights for each color - one on each side of the mast - be used. Was at night, not a good view. Would not recommend two sets of lights ....that could end up being confusing. Stick with the one set and try to get the elevated to whatever degree possible and also away from the mast to whatever degree possible. You will have some blind spots, but I would try to make them astern, to whatever degree you could. snip If a skipper of another boat sees the red of my tricolor, for example, he might conclude that he is seeing the starboard side of some vessel. you mean the other stbd. If he assumed that all other lights were working properly, he might conclude that he was looking at a sailboat under sails. But a single red light could be any number of other vessels with one or more lights not properly functioning. If, on the other hand, he sees a red light over a green light, there is only one type of vessel it could be - a sailboat under sails. Also my thought is that two lights of two different colors would be that much more visible. All in all, correct, but the majority, will not be considering possible extinguished lights, and usually in this case, if others are available, it will be obvious that something is out of wack, but even so, you are correct and again it's a question of how far you wish to go..... more can definitely be better, but still keep a big flashlight handy to shine on your sails (personal opinion ... it's about the best attention getter) otn I have seen these optional lights several times here in UK waters, but always on big sail-training-type boats. They are certainly very distinctive and seem to work well, otherwise you are basing decisions on the *absence* of a white light. The 80' ketch I sail on has these lights on its main mast, they are on a pair of struts that extend maybe 1 foot forward of the mast which must give them coverage little better than the steaming light (the 'all round reds' for NUC are on the same struts). The boat is MCA inspected annually, but I guess that since they are optional they are legal as long as they are off! Some skippers use them, some don't. Steve |
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