By Wayne Spivak, Branch Chief – National Press Corps
National Marketing and Public Affairs Department United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
Source: americanboating.com
Nothing ingratiates a driver more, to other drivers, than driving on a dark road at night, without your headlights on. Oops, I’m in error. One other action a driver can take surpasses the level of danger of driving without headlights. That’s driving with your high beams on!
Which driver who’s reading this article can honestly say that they have never encountered one or both of these situations? Can you also say you have never made this error? Now I did say “honestly”. I’ll stand up and say “Yes, I’ve forgotten to turn on my lights from time to time!” I’ll also admit to “being lazy about changing my high beams to low beams.”
So what does driving with your headlights on, have to do with nautical lighting? Well, just like our landlubber cousins, boats also have headlights and backlights and high beams. Unlike our road-bound cousins, boating does not have the luxury of a spatial backplane in which to judge, for the most part, direction of another vessel.
Let’s explain this last statement. On the road, even on a very dark, winding, country road, you have signposts, trees, houses and, even fields of corn stalks. Out on the water, you have water, then you have water, occasionally you have an aid to navigation, another vessel’s sound (which can be confusing, as to their direction). In other words, it’s very difficult to tell the direction of a vessel, without looking at their lights.
Navigation Lights
Every time I go boating at night, I am amazed at the number of people who either have no navigational lights on, due to either forgetfulness or a partial or total equipment malfunction, or who have the wrong navigational lights on.
For simplicity sake, let’s take the standard 21ft cuddy roundabout. The Rules of the Road state that vessels this size need a red and a green bow light (a combination light is acceptable) capable of being seen ? mile. In addition, a 360° all-around white light at the stern is also required, that can be seen ? mile.
What can go wrong with this simple light configuration? Everything! From the combo light being not operational, to the white light not being positioned so that it can be seen 360° by other vessels. Navigation lights are extremely important.