Boating at Night

DDD

DDD

New Member
Oct 27, 2012
268
Tampa, FL
Boat Info
2008 45
Engines
Diesel
This tragic accident on the Hudson River brings about some thoughts and questions about cruising at night.

What are the rules of using a spot light?
Can you leave it on all of the time?

Besides staying sober, radar, going slow, and local knowledge, does anyone have any thoughts on safe cruising at night?

be safe everyone
 
DDD said:
This tragic accident on the Hudson River brings about some thoughts and questions about cruising at night.

What are the rules of using a spot light?
Can you leave it on all of the time?

Besides staying sober, radar, going slow, and local knowledge, does anyone have any thoughts on safe cruising at night?

be safe everyone
Click to expand...
First of all DO NOT let your “Spot Light” on all the time. If you use it all, and I do not, turn it on for a brief moment to light up an obstacle or something in front of you which you don’t normally see out there. Having the light hit boaters in front of you will wreak havoc. Not to mention get you a lot of name calling.

As with driving a car, most of these accidents are caused by speed, driving faster than you can see. If out on a pitch dark night, I slow down. Sure the radar is on, and it will help, but I rather work off my visual ability. I fell much better when I can see what it front of me.

In just about all the accidents with fatalities speed is the contributing factor. Hell I would like to see them ban go-fast boats after sunset. That way I don’t have to worry about being killing out there by some idiot going 60 in the dark. Actually I did have a near miss last month when coming home a night, someone in a go fast came up and passed my within 50 yards of my port quarter, in pitch black in a six knot zone, going under a railroad bridge with only a 12 foot clearance. I slowed down, he came from behind me, and I never saw him. The noise got my attention, and then the wake. He never slowed down and barreled through the 6 knot zone, and right under the bridge. At that speed, one miss calculation, one thing out of the norm, and that boat would have been another statistic, and maybe he would have taken me with him. I looked over at the Admiral and she was pissed, I just said “and then wonder why we have fatalities out here!”

Cruise at night all you like, just allow yourself time to cruise at a safe speed.
 
Last edited:
It's all about SA. Situational Awareness. The more you have the better. That means be familiar with your surroundings, use all the means to know where you are and where you are going, chart plotters, radar, iPad, autopilot. Dim you lights as low as possible, use a red headlamp to see the instrument panel etc. it takes 30 minutes to get your complete night vision and 5 seconds to lose it. Keep the cockpit dark. Have the admiral stand watch on the helm as more eyes are better. Practice with the radar and chart plotter in the day time. Practice is the only way you will know what you are looking at in the dark. Run the chart plotter and radar on split screens so you have more contrast on the radar image. Question everything, do let even small curiosities go unsolved. I was once heading home on a familiar waterway in a boat with no radar and only a handheld GPS. But I had been on that course as least a hundred times. It was very dark. I saw a green and red light in the distance and knew there was a bridge up ahead that had a green and red light marking the channel. And so I headed straight for it. When I was almost to the bridge a GIANT spot light turned on right in my face about 100 yards in front of me. I was going about 20 kts and veered sharply to the left and slowed down. The light was from a big tug boat pushing 16 barges, 4 wide by 4 long. The red and green lights were on the opposite corners of the 4 wide barges and I was headed right to the middle of them. There was a dim blinking yellow light in the middle, but I never saw it. If he hadn't seen me in his radar and turned on his zillion candlepower light I'm not sure I'd be typing this right now. I spent a lot of time thinking about that near miss experience and what went wrong. First, when I saw the red and green lights I assumed it was the bridge, even though I know the bridge has three lights, red green red marking the channel, second I thought the bridge was further, but did not look on the chart plotter because I was complacent, third I was going to fast for the conditions and worrying more about seeing logs than barges. If you really want to learn how to navigate in the dark, buy some foggles. They are safety glasses that are etched so you can only see down and not out. They are used for Instrument training in aircraft. Wear those and get yourself back to the dock without looking out or the boat. Of course do it in the daytime and have someone experienced on board as lookout to make sure you don't run into anything. I practice a lot with my current boat, which had radar etc. really paid off the day we got trapped in 25' visibility fog.

Pete
 
:thumbsup: Common sense at night is all it takes. Some boaters do not use it during the day, so how can we expect them to use it at night?
 
Leaving the spotlight on at night will blind and confuse other boaters. Navigation/running lights should be all you use at night. Use the spot momentarily to pick out a particular object in the water.
If you're out at night, make sure it is somewhere you are familiar with, and/or adjust speed accordingly.
From watching local news coverage of the incident on the Hudson it appears as though the operator of the boat was guilty of excessive speed for the conditions, and being drunk. Either of which will almost certainly cause you a problem when operating at night, or during daylight hours for that matter, no matter what your experience level is.
 
All nights are not created equal. I have cruised late at night with a full moon and clear sky. Absolutely delightful experience. I have also been out when there is no visual clue whatesoever. In fact, the views of supossedly familiar shore lines caused me to second guess my GPS - mistake! I was lucky.

Be prudent in all boating decisions.

Be safe my friends - its way more fun. Jack
 
We love to cruise the TN river at night but the fishing boats goin WAY too fast can make it unpleasant if you're not payin attention. I go slowly from marker to marker with my spot at the ready just in case.
 
We boat quite a bit at night. Our boat is very visible and we only run 6mph at night. Being one of the larger boats on our river, spotting the small fishing boats, in the channel fishing?, is our biggest challenge. Most don't have proper lighting or knowledge of safe boating. We just purchased radar to spot those idiots, Mike.
 
We have affect underwater lighting under our swim platform.
Is it legal to have these on at night when cruising?
 
Maybe it's me, maybe it's the body of water we boat on ( Puget Sound - salt water ) and the 10-15 feet tide swings we experience, but we have a ton of debris in the water. I do not travel in the dark of night... no good can come from it.
 
1990-270-da-lover said:
:thumbsup: Common sense at night is all it takes. Some boaters do not use it during the day, so how can we expect them to use it at night?
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: + another one:)
 
you are really ASKING FOR TROUBLE.... by putting the throttle down at night, it can be dicey enough at 6 or 7 knots, completely avoidable tragedy, very sad for their family, friends, and the entire boating community.........
 
As far as speed goes, State or local ordinance may apply to your location. In the OH state Park system, No Wake Speed is mandatory from dusk to dawn. I feel very confident at night on Alum Creek Lake, because I have been boating there for 25+ years. I use my spotlight sparingly, to identify potential debris in the water.
I don't boat at night on Lake Erie; there's just too much opportunity for error waiting out there, and resolution is just complicated by the darkness.
 
Zorba said:
NO.
Click to expand...

Were you told NO? or did you read that in the boating laws somewhere? I read the laws, and it appears that as long as the light cannot be confused for a navigation light, which if you had the other required lights on, not sure how you would be confused, and the underwater lights were not Blue flashing lights (cops Only, children)

Not trying to be snarky, I'm really wanting to understand, and normally I would take you at your word, but boating laws are like playing Fizzbin on Star Trek.
And if you get that reference, you and I should go and have a drink and a burger somewhere.
 
I read it the way you read it, which is confusing at best and open to interpretation. I guess I should have expanded that, on My boat I feel it would interfere with my nav lights thus be illegal. I have two, for all intents and purposes, headlights shooting out of the back of my boat illuminating not only the water but the spray as well. I feel this would be confusing to anyone around me thus making them illegal. It would also ruin any adjustment your eyes have made to darkness. I also think it would be discourteous boaters around you at night.

In my opinion, while not specifically written, it would be an open invitation for law enforcement to pull you over. Then the law would be open to their interpretation, and we all know how that goes.
 
I agree. I even went to the Coast Guard site to see what they had. Pretty much the same thing. So If "the guy" sees it and believes it's confusing, then it is. End of story. I'm big on not provoking the CG or the Marine Police. While I am probably within the laws, and I try to have everything I'm supposed to have, Nobody is perfect. You look long enough, I'll bet you can find something wrong.
My underwater/Transom Lights are blueish anyway. Probably just an invite to get hassled by "the man".
But I will say that the Marine Police around Guntersville and the Madison county part of the Tennessee River/Guntersville Lake are pretty cool. As long as you aren't doing anything crazy or suspicious, they pretty much leave you alone. I have been pulled over and a safety check was done, but I had all the stuff he was looking for that time. My step-kid was 8 or 9 at the time, and he got a free Fries at McDonald's card for having his PFD on. He was stoked. My Gawd...That was 9 years ago...Holy Crap on a cracker...
But I digress....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,253
Messages
1,429,338
Members
61,128
Latest member
MinecraftRuSwilm
Back
Top