Night Lighting

[ChrisB123]

Looking at getting some lighting for night/dusk ribbing. As it would be for occassional use i dont really want to put something permanent on the rib, which idealy would have to be s/steal and very secure.

I'm thinking of a portable system. A couple of spot lamps that i could clamp to the A frame and console hand rail with a separate battery.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

[Chris]

Your are not supposed to operate a boat at night with spotlamps as it can look like a distress signal.

Ideally you should fit a pair of navigation lights red to port and green to starboard.

"Right-of-Way lights - On ships, aircraft and manned spacecraft, a red light will be mounted on the left or port side of the craft and a green on the right or starboard side. These help two craft on a collision course determine who has right-of-way: if a pilot sees a craft on a path crossing his own, he will see either its red running light or green running light. If he sees green, he is to the impinging craft's starboard and has the right of way. If the pilot sees the red light, he knows that the approaching craft has the right-of-way, and he is required to deviate from his course to avoid the collision."

You should also have an Anchor light which should be mounted ideally in the middle of the boat 1 meter above the level of the navigation lights. In most cases on a rib you would fit all three to the A frame if you have one.

Its not that expensive to fit these if you don't have an aframe then some people fit nav lights either side of the console and the Anchor light onto a pole at the stern or again onto the console.

If you search on ebay for Navigation lights or anchor lights you should find plenty of options.

[ChrisB123]

Thanks for the reply.

Perhaps i should have made things more clear. The rib is fully fitted with the lights you advise.

I would be in need of spot lights when closing in on the yacht club entrance and to visually pick up the buoys marking the entrance.

I am also thinking of lights to see when night fishing.

Cheers

[Chris]

Ahhh I see, ok in that case I have a cheap and cheerful JCB 12Volt hand held spotlight and I have one of these waterproof sockets on the console :

http://www.bulgin.co.uk/Products/Buc...-s_B_400px.jpg

Then I have fitted the other end to the spotlight :

http://www.bulgin.co.uk/Products/Buc...0731_400px.jpg

I then just have a floodlight hanging from the A frame to light up the deck if fishing or map reading or rolling a fag

The benefit of the bulgin waterproof connectors is that you can then have other items that need 12 Volts such as perhaps a TV or maybe a 12 Volt blender for your margheritas so that you can just plug them into the same socket

[kingfisher69]

Originally Posted by Chris

Ahhh I see, ok in that case I have a cheap and cheerful JCB 12Volt hand held spotlight and I have one of these waterproof sockets on the console :

http://www.bulgin.co.uk/Products/Buc...-s_B_400px.jpg

Then I have fitted the other end to the spotlight :

http://www.bulgin.co.uk/Products/Buc...0731_400px.jpg

I then just have a floodlight hanging from the A frame to light up the deck if fishing or map reading or rolling a fag

The benefit of the bulgin waterproof connectors is that you can then have other items that need 12 Volts such as perhaps a TV or maybe a 12 Volt blender for your margheritas so that you can just plug them into the same socket

I totally agree with Chris the hand held spotlights are excellent but i can also recommend for night fishing /baiting up etc the cheap draper strap on head lights swith them on as you need them and you dont evn know you are wearing them very handy bit of kit i have been using one for years regards Gary

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by kingfisher69

I totally agree with Chris the hand held spotlights are excellent but i can also recommend for night fishing /baiting up etc the cheap draper strap on head lights swith them on as you need them and you dont evn know you are wearing them very handy bit of kit i have been using one for years regards Gary

I've now got a cap light (clips onto the peak of a baseball cap) with a red lense (made from a Cadbury's Roses wrapper ) and I prefer it to the headlight. It's so small you don't know it's there.

[Biggles]

I use one of these.

http://www.marine-super-store.com/po...artno=99112639

Trouble is I never seem to be out in the dark

[biffer]

you need to talk to a company called c quip, as they sell fully waterproof hand held spotlights with curly wire attached and a stainless steel mount to put it on when not in use, plus waterproof dash mounted sockets and plugs,
i think that they are all made by aqua signal hope it helps, tell them that biff sent you, b a marine

[Ribshop]

I think this is the one Biffer is on about
http://www.rib-shop.com/product.asp?..._ID=22:thumbs:

[BruceB]

I intend to fit out my new hull the same as the last one, fairly simply but well lit for operating at night.
Apart from the Nav lights I had two small led lights in the console low down that lit the deck area enough to make sure you didn't trip over anything. These were small waterporrf triple LEDs in blue and could be left on for hours without any effect on the battery. hanging off the bottom of the A frame pointing into the boat was a 4" round Hella rubber flood. This could be swivelled left and right to light up the water on either side of the boat and pointed straight down to light up the engine if neccessary. Normally it pointed on the rear deck and lit up the deck itself.
The total cost was about £40 for all the bits and they were not really stealable!