Light Houses and Fog Signals: Going going gone...

[Channel Ribs]

Not an auction, that would be cool.

Locally the lighthouse here in Alderney is being turned off, the diesel backup generator removed and the lense covered up.

In place of the light, currently with a range of 24nm, will be a set of LEDs attached around the railing of the tower. With a mains charged backup battery bank. The LEDs will have a range of around 12nm.

The fog horn is also going.

Any similar reports from around Britain and beyond?

I have mixed feelings, LED light seems to penetrate better and has an eye-catching twinkly quality. Certainly the set-in-the-ways brigade will have a harder time arguing that they don't make good nav lights.

On the other hand, is this a move towards electronic only navigation? I quite like (sailing rather than powerboating) with a minimum setup, paper charts, compass and a cup of tea. Less light range will, I think, effect our ability to engage in that sort of boating. Maybe that is a good thing?

[Erin]

Progress marches on I suppose. Won't be quite the same though, and standing on a clear night at the bottom watching the 4 beams of light spinning round won't be quite as 'romantic'.

And what about Casquets?

I suppose the next step will be to sell the tower for conversion to residential use, and provide a new lighthouse, which won't need to be anything more than a pole with an LED torch at the top and a few duracells at the bottom!

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by Erin

And what about Casquets?

As far as I recall from the time of the review, Casquets is being left as it is.

[Starovich]

12 miles or 24 miles makes no difference to RiB users, you can only see for 3-4 anyway

[Erin]

Originally Posted by Starovich

12 miles or 24 miles makes no difference to RiB users, you can only see for 3-4 anyway

I disagree with that a little bit. If I'm travelling north from Jersey (30 miles from Alderney) I can see Casquets, Alderney and Goury lighthouses with their specific 3, 4 and 5 grp flashes. I therefore know I'm pointing the right way at night without looking at any other navigation instrument. Obviously to save me from destruction on rocks, 3 or 4 miles is more than adequate, but they do have other benefits. Dipping distances would be useless with such a short range too.

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by Starovich

12 miles or 24 miles makes no difference to RiB users, you can only see for 3-4 anyway

You need goggles

[willk]

Irish Lights turned off the few remaining fog signals this month.

This was not in any way connected to the UK discontinuing financial contributions to the service

[Erin]

Originally Posted by willk

This was not in any way connected to the UK discontinuing financial contributions to the service

Nope, it's cos you've all got tinitus from too much beer and Ceilidhs and can't hear em anyway
Either that, or your economy is so bad that you've gone back to piracy and luring ships onto the rocks for their bounty.

[willk]

Originally Posted by Erin

too much beer

That's a novel concept

Originally Posted by Erin

Either that, or your economy is so bad that you've gone back to piracy and luring ships onto the rocks for their bounty.

Hmmmm. Maybe we should look at cutting our lekkie bill too...

[J S]

Originally Posted by malthouse

On the other hand, is this a move towards electronic only navigation? I quite like (sailing rather than powerboating) with a minimum setup, paper charts, compass and a cup of tea. Less light range will, I think, effect our ability to engage in that sort of boating. Maybe that is a good thing?

I think your right in the view that everything is moving towards electronic navigation. With the use of AIS for navigation being used more prominently (considering it was never designed for this purpose), this will be replacing many physical navigational marks in the future. Replacing them with Pseudo Buoys where the signal will be sent from a shorebased station creating a virtual buoy. Therefore using your chartplotter/AIS to navigate with.

As a side note many of the modern ships you may see now (especially cruise ships) sailing out of Southampton will no longer carry any paper charts and rely purely on Chartplotter/Ecdis setups.

James