I posted this in response to a question on lakecumberland, but thought I would copy it here as well. Lights on boats are very specific in color, intensity and arc of visibility. What another boater sees of your navigation lights at night tells the direction of travel, which side of the boat you are looking at, and if you are coming or going. Muck that up with a bunch of LEDs, docking lights and spotlights and your chances of having a collision just increased drastically. This is especially true in front of a marina with all of their dock and land based lights. The law SPECIFICALLY STATES you shall not display any exterior lighting that interferes with any navigation lighting on a vessel, and no boat exterior shall use a color light already specified for navigational purposes. So, if you are underway or at anchor, no other lights than USCG approved navigational lights. If you are tied at the dock, light it up! Thats it. The red and green bow lights on a boat show who has the right of way and are visible through an arc of 112.5* from centerline of the bow of the vessel. If you come upon a boat at night and see a red bow light and a white stern light, you are to give them the right of way and pass BEHIND them. Red is always STOP, just like a car. Red also means you are looking at the left side of the other persons boat, therefore you can tell their direction of travel. If you see a green and white light, you are looking at the right side of the other boat. Their green light means they are SUPPOSED to give you the right of way and pass behind you. If you only see a white light, the boat is either at anchor or moving away from you. If you are not at anchor, you are adrift and must display running lights, not just an anchor light. If you see a red and green light with a white overhead, the boat is coming directly or near directly at you. You are required to keep to the right, just like in a car. The red and green shows oncoming boats on which side to pass. At no time should you turn into the field of view of a red navigation light. You are crossing anothers path. Boats should always pass each other with red light to red light in an oncoming situation. (This is sometimes hard to do with people running up the wrong side of the lake) These are universal rules that everyone is supposed to know and abide by while on the water. It keeps people from turning into another boats path and other collision situations. In most basic terms, if you have a collision, you were not following very basic rules. The arcs of light displayed are controlled for a purpose... to know where you are in relation to the other boat. You cannot just throw a red and green LED strip on a boat and call it good because the light is now being emitted over a 180* arc or more, depending on how it is placed on the boat. An oncoming boater would not really be able to tell if the boat displaying the LED is coming directly at them or they were looking at the side of them, etc. That means those red and green rubrail lights bass boat guys think are cool are also illegal as heck. Also illegal is running with docking lights on, continuous spotlight usage, overhead lights on ski boats, houseboat porch lights while underway, etc. All of those have an uncontrolled arc of light, are more intense than navigation lights and therefore block their visibility and most are white light in direct conflict with your white all around navigation light. As for lights on in the interior.... If you are underway, any light turned on in the interior WILL DEFINATELY interfere with your night vision and greatly reduce your ability to keep a proper lookout at all times.... another navigation rule/law. Basically, if you are coved up, tied up in Harmon Creek, tied up at the dock or otherwise stationary with a group of boats out of the way of being a navigational hazard you can legally use your lights. In every other instance they are to be off. And finally there is this: Inoperative lighting, unapproved lighting, illegal lighting and improper use of spotlights will pretty much guarantee you a pull over by the Water Patrol and at the very least get a warning.
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 23:06:24 +0000
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