Spotlight Glare

[abcandjrc]

A heads up on spotlights, even powerful handhelds. If you shine them so the beam hits the rails, they will light up like Halogen bulbs and you will not be able to see your target and even lose night vision for a while. We learned about the glare problem on our sailboat many years ago, with even the shrouds and stays causing lots of vision problems.

We participated in a lighted boat parade at Christmas time in our R21-EC. It was a night with no scheduled moonrise. I anticipated problems returning six miles after the parade on a winding river with many shallow sloughs off the edge. I got some soft foam pipe insulation of the proper inside diameter at Lowes and covered the rails with pieces I cut to fit the various rail sections and stanchions forward of the pilot house. I used light line two or three places on each to hold them against losing them in the wind. It worked like a champ!

I have them stowed under the berth now just in case I get trapped out in a situation where I will need the spotlight to find my way home.

 

[dalee62]

I made a tube out of black coroplast that fits over the spot light to deal with the reflection off the stainless rails and the white fore deck.

Dave

 

[knotflying]

Dave,
Can you explain further what you did and why it works? I assume you made a tube in the diameter of the light and it fits over it like a sleeve. How far out past the light does it have to go to be effective?
I have a friend who had a lot of time on his hands and actually wound dark fishing type line around the railings! It looks good, but way too much work, I'd boat in the daylight before I would go that far!

 

[abcandjrc]

..........I have a friend who had a lot of time on his hands and actually wound dark fishing type line around the railings! It looks good, but way too much work, I'd boat in the daylight before I would go that far!

Took enough time to wrap the kingspoke on the wheel and I used 1/8" line. The foam works fine to stop the glare, and is light and flexible, so it stows easily for "emergency" use. Cheap, too.

I think putting a tube on the spotlight itself would work as long as you did not lower the beam to look at something as low as, or below, the rails. It would focus the beam a bit, so would work fine for distance spotting, such as looking for nav marks. And it would be fast to install or remove. But sometimes close-in is where I want to see, particularly if there is debris in the water.

 

[dalee62]

I just wrapped the coroplast around the light and taped it. I just slide it on when I need it. It slicks out almost as far as the visor. I did not experiment with different lengths, I just used the piece of coroplast I had and it worked so I left it alone. I suspect it is a little longer than need be. The down side to it is that I can not swing the light all the way to the port beam but that has not been a huge problem so far. In my part of the world it's logs and dead heads in front of me that I'm concerned about.

Dave

 

[RProffer]

Dave, Would you post a picture of what you did? I am not familiar with coroplast.

 

[dalee62]

Coroplast is what they use here to make real estate signs out of. It's basically a plastic board you can bend sort of.

I will take a picture when I get a chance. I will have to put it in my album under John Hearnden modifications because I am to stupid to figure out how to post a picture on this page. I will let you know when I get this done.

Dave

 

[dalee62]

Okay the picture is there. This invention should be featured on the Red Green show. You will have to stand in line to laugh at it.

Dave

 

[RProffer]

Thanks for the picture Dave. I will have to try it on my tug.

I saw your mod with the golf cart batteries. What brand and size battery did you use? Did they fit into the mount for the type 24's okay, or did you have to modify the type 24 mounts?

 

[dalee62]

The batteries are US Battery 2200. 6 volt golf carts hooked together to give me 12 volts and 232 amp hours. They are a slightly wider than the 24s so I cut the left end out of the tray so they would fit. I think combined they are 14.5 inches wide. They are slightly higher but there is lots of room in that area. I have also installed a Power Pulse to help eliminate sulfation.

Dave

 

[Ainokea]

Hijacked thread?

 

[abcandjrc]

Okay the picture is there. This invention should be featured on the Red Green show. You will have to stand in line to laugh at it.

Dave

How about adding a link to the picture. I browsed your album for about 10 minutes and never did come across it. 😳

Not that the pictures weren't fun, but a direct link would put us right on the picture of the spotlight.

 

[dalee62]

Okay here it is. It looks kinda funny but it works very well.

Dave

 

[abcandjrc]

Ah, yeah. I don't know if it reminds me of some RADAR speed guns I have faced, or maybe the rig Apollo 13 used to fit the command module filters to the LEMs CO2 scrubbers.

I bet with some careful shopping one could even find a commercial tube of some sort to fit the light. But that current rig seems to do the job. I was thinking of perhaps some plastic waste-water plumbing (which tends to be heavy) or some round aluminum ducting (which would be much lighter). One could surely have one made of aluminum by a sheet-metal shop if he decided to do that. Yours is probably able to be stored flat though, if need be.

I wondered about your comment of looking left. But you are one of the more fortunate ones whose mast folds back instead of into the masthead-eating trees on the side of the road. :evil: