Hazard Detection System

[Portage_Bay]

I guess we would when coming into harbor at night, but at sea they were generally off unless we were working. Gulf of Alaska/ Prince William Sound/ Bristol Bay/ Aleutians. I'm not really familiar with working boats on the upper west coast.

I wish more were like you. Maybe I'm painting with a broad brush calling all fish boats guilty of having their lights on all the time. But I've been blinded too many times to count.

 

[RT Firefly]

 

[jungpeter]

Good point. Although logically, if you're using any lighting bright enough to do that (beyond brief use of a spotlight), you're probably somewhere that nobody is around to see your nav lights anyway (otherwise you'd be blinding everyone else).

Sure wish that was a universal sentiment. However, in my many decades here in the PNW, "crab lights" are often blindingly observed on commercial fishing vessels more often than not. Inbound to the Chittenden Locks, I've been personally blinded to a dangerous degree by a commercial fishing vessel exiting the Shilshole Bay Entrance Range displaying a huge, mast-mounted "crab light" that destroyed my night vision, obscured the navigational beacons, and obliterated observation of his navigation lights. Thoroughly pissed me off.

A somewhat less egregious occurrence of miss-use of forward-looking high intensity lighting was observed on my first arrival to the Port of Port Townsend after a lengthy and tiring trip up the coast from San Diego, some time well after dark. Trying to pick out the red and green entrance markers on the jetty against the city lights was bad enough. But when lined up with the entrance fairway, I observed a vessel's running lights, indicating an outbound vessel in the fairway, with an accompanying VERY bright forward-facing red light at masthead level. Huh? WTF is THIS guy doing? He's so far to my starboard side of the entrance channel that I must pass him starboard-side to in order to stay in safe water. And WTF is that stupid red light on his masthead? $%&%$ I'm tired and cranky after a long passage, never been in this entrance before, but proceeded inbound at minimum steerage.

To find an 82' USCG cutter safely moored outbound at their pier on the starboard side of the fairway. No one in sight aboard, no one on the dock indicating they were getting underway, dead-ship in every way. It appears some dufus forgot to turn off the nav lights. And no idea to this day why they had that enormous red light at the masthead. Probably some attempt to illuminate their foredeck, but did a fabulous job of illuminating my eyeballs instead. Sigh.

I'm not a fan of forward high-intensity illumination while underway. May enable picking up a crab pot in the Bering Sea, but is a PIA to everyone elsewhere. The COLREGS have a purpose.

Regards,

Pete

 

[twistedtree]

I think at the end of the day there is an element of calculated risk in night operations. Even with all boats properly lit, radar operational, forward sonar operational, FLIR operational, cabin lights in night mode, there is still stuff you will never see until you hit it. A sleeping whale, a log or other debris, a fishing net, or whatever. I have been on moonless passages where you can’t see anything. And I mean nothing. Absolute black in front of you. If the seas are choppy, you won’t see anything unless you hit it. It’s just how it is. All the gadgets help shift the odds more in your favor, but don’t kid yourself into thinking you have eliminated the risk. A big ocean that is predominantly clear of debris, I.e. odds heavily in your favor to begins with, is how we all manage to survive.

 

[JD Ray]

I'm not a fan of forward high-intensity illumination while underway. May enable picking up a crab pot in the Bering Sea, but is a PIA to everyone elsewhere. The COLREGS have a purpose.

Having been blinded several times while driving with various knuckle-draggers with their giant lights on giant pickups, or night construction lighting that's mis-managed, I can imagine what bright lights on the water can do. Spotlights are fine for illuminating something in particular, but I wouldn't want to use one for general navigation.

It's curious to me that the various navigation vendors (Garmin, Furuno, etc.) don't have anything (at least that I could find) that covers the gap between 20 degrees down angle and 0 degrees forward. I realize that passage in heavy seas would cause intermittent times that a forward-looking transducer would be looking above the waterline, and therefore useless, but how often do people make passage in those sort of conditions? Not uncommon, but boating would be a different, less-desirable experience if every time you went out, it was in three-foot-or-higher seas.

 

[Simi 60]

Pretty sure forward looking sonar don't work if travelling over about 3 knots.
We had an earlier interphase model, previous owner didn't bother replacing it when it died as he said it was next to useless.

Full length keel and steel shoe up to the waterline and fully protected prop is our protection
Of course that doesn't help if you clock a floater off the Centerline.