Blinded By The Light

I must say, it is a nice look, up high.
 
The spotlight really belongs right up at the bow of the boat, perhaps mounted on a plate attached to the bow rails as far forward as possible. That way no stray light hits the white foredeck. I had a Searay express cruiser years ago with the spotlight mounted that way. It worked great.

Btw, the so-called white "docking lights", faired into the hull just below the bow pulpit, are virtually useless on my C30. Sure would be nice to convert them to some high powered LEDs. Any other ideas?
 
Good morning Bay Ranger,
Just a suggestion to take another approach.
During daylight hours try using your radar & chart
plotter on a split screen to get profeshant at identifying the unlit markers, as your confidence & experience increases I think you will find the light to be unessary.
These skills will increse your safety during fog & night passages.
Best of luck!
Mike
M/V Elan
Cutwater 26 with Yanmar engine
 
No radar.... low budget show.
Thus the "Paint Can Search Light Mod".
Ha.

r
 
elan":26aqe398 said:
...try using your radar & chart plotter on a split screen ...
Click to expand...
Interestingly I find being blinded by the spot to be a mute point due to all of the other nav gear. Even with brightness turned down on the screens I find my night vision is ruined. Back in the day of analog radars we used to have a hood on the screen specifically to save night vision. The compass had a red light and loran etc. had red displays. Preferably a second crew member manned the radar to save the helmsman's night vision. So all the modern nav gear with large, high rez screens are a mixed blessing.

Granted it is true that with radar at min range, GPS, and depth sounder, it is possible to thread one's way through pretty tight quarters. But as previously mentioned, none of the electronics replace visual for spotting logs and pot buoys. If it's flat calm radar will pick up your larger chunks of ice but misses ones that are plenty big enough to ruin your day on a small fiberglass boat.

Long daylight hours in high latitudes sure are nice 😀
 
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