Spotlights

b_arrington

b_arrington

Well-Known Member
GOLD Sponsor
Feb 21, 2007
3,482
Setauket, NY
Boat Info
Back Cove 37
AB Ventus 9VL
Engines
Cummins QSC 8.3 600
I'm starting to look for a spot light to mount on my hard top. Any brands / models that folks have found better or worse than others?

My purposes is to be able to pick out nav buoys and moorings on the way to the dock at night. The last couple times I went out it was so darn dark I had a really hard time. I nearly ran aground by unintentionally cutting the corner on a channel.

I'm looking for one that can be controlled via a wireless remote; I don't have space on the dash to mount a control. So far two candidates are the Golight Stryker ST and the ACR RCL-95.
 
Not knowing your boat, but most say that the arch/hard top is not a good place for a spot... too much reflection off the bow. Best to be mounted on the tip of the bow.
 
JimG said:
Not knowing your boat, but most say that the arch/hard top is not a good place for a spot... too much reflection off the bow. Best to be mounted on the tip of the bow.
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I’ve thought about that. I really don’t have a good place on the bow to mount a light. What I do have is a mast with an open position that would be fairly easy to mount something. I think the position on the top would block the light from spilling onto the deck.

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I've never used mine. Most people are saying buy a rechargable handheld unit and have your deck hand up on the bow spotting.
 
Have a spotlight on our mast, location sucks. The spot on the 280 located beside the anchor windlass was far more effective. Better choice look at a Flir type night vision camera. A neighbor has one connected to his axiom display. It’s just assume. My car has thermal imagining which works ok at picking out vehicles and deer. This actual light scavenging night vision.

on the other side, that neighbor has a bank of high intensity leds mounted to his tuna tower that put out a gajillion lumens and will piss off folks two docks over.
 
Jaybeaux said:
I've never used mine. Most people are saying buy a rechargable handheld unit and have your deck hand up on the bow spotting.
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I used to use the hand held approach out the front of my AJ. I often don’t have a spare deck hand that could do that job. I found I didn’t have a good line of sight with the light out the side window of the pilot house. Hence thinking a fixed mount in the mast would be a good solution.

I have a buddy that just got the same model boat with a light on the mast; he’s going out at night this weekend so I’ll ask him about the reflection etc.
 
Henry Boyd said:
Have a spotlight on our mast, location sucks. The spot on the 280 located beside the anchor windlass was far more effective. Better choice look at a Flir type night vision camera. A neighbor has one connected to his axiom display. It’s just assume. My car has thermal imagining which works ok at picking out vehicles and deer. This actual light scavenging night vision.
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Now you’re talking real money Henry. Even the cheap FLIR cameras are expensive!

But I understand your point.
 
@b_arrington Brad, I have been on boats with the spot in the mast like what you are thinking of and to Henry's point, it's no good. Much better to mount directly on the bow. The cheaper Flir MD-625 or M232 is a great choice for the mast.
 
No problem honey, hang tight and the tide will free us in like 8 hours.

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Oh man, why do you guys have to tell me valid info that doesn’t confirm my pre-conceived notions?

Thanks for the info. Not what I wanted to hear, but useful. I hadn’t thought about a FLIR, maybe because they are so pricey. Might have to reconsider my options.
 
The only problem I’ve seen with the wireless is if a dock are has the same model you are turning each other’s off and on and may not notice. Happened to my friend. Found a dead battery on his boat
 
Not from a boating experiance but from my overlanding burb. I had the overhead lights on a roof rack. The light bouncing off the hood was horrible. I put a flat shade on the bottom of the light and it helped. I used some flat aluminum skin from an old P2V-7 and made it so it sat out from the bottom of the light about 5" and left it shinny on the top side. That and adjusting the light so the beam was slightly high took care of most of the reflection off the windshield. But there was still some from the hood but not nearly as bad.

So maybe a spot with a shield around the light with it slightly longer on the bottom. Kind of like on stop lights.
 
I’ll offer up that our spot is mounted at the front of the hardtop and I don’t find reflections off the bow to be a problem. Probably the length and slope of the bow will matter, however…
 
A bow mount would work if you had a welder weld a stainless plate to your bow rails at the point of the bow. Hard top is not a good location as explained above. Front deck reflection will kill your view far ahead and kill your night vision for a few minutes too.

You have radar. On my boat nav aids show up on the radar screen quite well, so I use the radar if I am unsure of their location. Frankly the only time I use the spot/flood is when anchored in some of our remote locations to scan the shoreline for bears before I take the dog ashore for the last nature break for the night. Its there for emergencies more than anything.

But to your actual question, mine is a Jabsco and works well. It has a auto pan and scan (with two speeds) that moves back and forth and is great for scanning for buoys if that is what you want. It also has an SOS setting for emergencies. Its spot and flood but the difference between the two is pretty minimal. Works well. Not wireless though so you do need to string wires, but you would have to for power anyway so I really don’t think its a big deal.
 
b_arrington said:
I’ve thought about that. I really don’t have a good place on the bow to mount a light. What I do have is a mast with an open position that would be fairly easy to mount something. I think the position on the top would block the light from spilling onto the deck.

View attachment 109610 View attachment 109611
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I am calling a CSR Foul! You are making me think about selling my SeaRay. Please stop posting pics of your Back Cove! :)

Beautiful boat! Hope she is treating you well.
 
Creekwood said:
A bow mount would work if you had a welder weld a stainless plate to your bow rails at the point of the bow. Hard top is not a good location as explained above. Front deck reflection will kill your view far ahead and kill your night vision for a few minutes too.

You have radar. On my boat nav aids show up on the radar screen quite well, so I use the radar if I am unsure of their location. Frankly the only time I use the spot/flood is when anchored in some of our remote locations to scan the shoreline for bears before I take the dog ashore for the last nature break for the night. Its there for emergencies more than anything.

But to your actual question, mine is a Jabsco and works well. It has a auto pan and scan (with two speeds) that moves back and forth and is great for scanning for buoys if that is what you want. It also has an SOS setting for emergencies. Its spot and flood but the difference between the two is pretty minimal. Works well. Not wireless though so you do need to string wires, but you would have to for power anyway so I really don’t think its a big deal.
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Thanks for the info. I'm rethinking the fixed search light idea based on comments here. I might need to do a bit more tuning with the radar to use it better for detecting the smaller objects. I think the Fantom 24 on my last boat was better at this than my current Fantom 18. I'm not sure how much help it would be in a closely packed mooring field though.

The scanning function sounds interesting. I'll take a look at that if I go the light route. If course I would need to provide power wherever it's mounted. My main reason for wanting a remote is I don't really have space on my dashboard for a controller. I have open spots on a fuse box in the engine room that would be pretty easy to get to. The idea of trying to get power to the bow makes be a little queasy though.
 
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