Estuary driving lights on the bow.

[Rip it up]

Has anybody experimented with permanent driving light mounted to the bow of a boat to navigate the creeks at night?

I've got an idea and not sure if it's worth the effort.

Option 1. Install 2x 10w 2" round LED flood lights on each side of the bow pointed out at 20/30deg from center. This would illuminate the creek banks for orientation and to find crab pots etc. When I'm happy with the direction, I will create a fibreglass protection shell over the top to stop and bumps and knocks.

Option 2. Install 2x 6" LED light bars either side of the bow roller to shot light forward with a little side flooding. Then put 2x 10w singles up on the corner of the windscreen. Pointing 60/70deg to get the flood effect. This scenario would not be easy to cover either light with damage protection.

And just a side note. The areas I am boating do not have 50 tinnies buzzing up and down popular waterways. This is to allow a hand after lighting source instead of torches and wired searchlights etc. The LEDs would get dedicated switches near the wheel to kill them as soon as another oncoming boat was heard/seen.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[tunaticer]

I fitted 2 x 20w Led bars 180mm long.
Perfect for the river except for when the fog is about, might investigate making amber filters for them to clip on.

[scottar]

For up close stuff LED's are ok but if you want any sort of distance and have a bow rail, the best way I have found is to rail mount a spotty. I usually just use canopy fittings so that nothing is permanent and cable tie the wire back along the rail to a plug and socket arrangement that is protected from the weather that is activated by a switch. I've not tried them personally due to cost but was told that the blue filters as used on products like Lightforce spotties are supposed to cut glare fairly effectively on the water.

[tunaticer]

You can get mixture flood and spot LED bars these days, gives you the length plus the spread.

[Rip it up]

Looks like I'm not alone in my night vision pursuits.

I do a lot of crabbing at night due to work and the tides. And the nature of those tiny creeks means i inevitably use the bow of the boat to nose into mangroves to perform 3 point turns etc. So protecting the lights is my concern. Not so much the lens but the mountings from the stray branch getting leverage on them.

Trial and error I think will have to be done.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[scottar]

If you go with LED bars, the light spread is wide anyway. I have just fitted a 30 inch spot beam to the Cruiser. Turns night into day up close from one tree line to the other going down the road for about 100 - 150 metres. The light is so bright that the reflection off street signs makes them unreadable until they get closer. The problem with distance penetration is that they are so bright up close yours eyes get a bit "overwhelmed" and the distance vision without equally bright light at that distance suffers. That said, if the principle purpose is up the creeks they will be great. Most important though will be to make sure they are mounted in such a position/way that nothing - rails, hull, etc - is capable of reflecting any light. If it does it will be near blinding. This is why I always used rail mounts as the rail was the most forward extremity.

[Fed]

What is it with LED lights, they seem so bright to look at yet don't seem to light up objects accordingly?
Maybe it's me, I said this to my Missus and she just gave me the fisheye.

[JulianDeMarchi]

I had a set mounted on my hardtop on the old Stacer. Great for crabbing at night time, wasn't interested in the distance anywho, only what was immediately beside me. I had them mounted on the side of the hardtop pointing forward but to the side. They were able to be moved easily so I could adjust them on the water to suit what I needed.

I went with the cheap round ones of ebay which were fully sealed and in a rubber housing. For the little $$ they cost they were a great investment.

[scottar]

What is it with LED lights, they seem so bright to look at yet don't seem to light up objects accordingly?
Maybe it's me, I said this to my Missus and she just gave me the fisheye.

Essentially the quality of the reflector and the effect that a high intensity light up close has on the eye - hard to explain unless you've seen it - closest I can think of is over exposure in a photo. You can get LED's to light up a long way off with a good focused reflector. I have a couple of security style torches that are good for a couple of hundred meters easy and I have seen a very good LED spotty that was good for about 500 but can't for the life of me remember the brand.

[Rip it up]

I had a set mounted on my hardtop on the old Stacer. Great for crabbing at night time, wasn't interested in the distance anywho, only what was immediately beside me. I had them mounted on the side of the hardtop pointing forward but to the side. They were able to be moved easily so I could adjust them on the water to suit what I needed.

I went with the cheap round ones of ebay which were fully sealed and in a rubber housing. For the little $$ they cost they were a great investment.

Thanks Julian.

That's the exact purpose I had intended. I have no height above the gunnel rubber to work with except the windscreen and I think if I mount the on the corners it will shine onto the foredeck too much.

I'm looking at $20 each on eBay. So might get 4 at that price. 2 facing forward. 2 facing the sides.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[Corry]

I dare say you are talking about the LED Lenser range Scottar, awesome products.

[the gecko]

I do a lot of work in estuaries at night, so I went for 2 halogen lights. $100 plus fitting. You can see it mounted inside the bow rail under the bimini top. They have 2 relays mounted to the console, so I can switch one on at a time. Range is great at 100-150m. No probs with current drain, as I have an accessories battery, and charge it once every 6 trips.

Its ideal for spotting banks and overhanging trees in skinny creeks at night, and also good for spotting long term moored boats in rivers with poor lighting. Handy for attracting prawns and baitfish to the castnet too.

The biggest problem is that they only work under 6 knts. Once you get any speed up, they are pointing at the sky. I would really like to mount them in the hull itself next time to get the right angle, but, yes, they are very worthwhile as they are. They do rust out as the rubber seals degrade after 1-2 yrs, and I am on my sedcond set.

cheers
Andrew

[Rip it up]

I think the trick will be getting the angle correct. Flood beams should help with the various speeds. So they can be used at all speeds.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[tunaticer]

Fllod leds are typically 20 or 30 degree spread, it is quite easy to get the happy medium so you can use them at all speeds.
Using a spot model will need adjusting from lugging to planing.
Combo bars are quite common now and give you two worlds to play with.
I paid $17 each for my light bars. Happy with the build and quality.

[JulianDeMarchi]

I think the trick will be getting the angle correct. Flood beams should help with the various speeds. So they can be used at all speeds.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

I found the trick of making my lights movable with the loosening of a nut to be the best fix. I could adjust to the situation I'm in. Sometimes I wanted them looking behind the boat, other times to the front and of to the side a bit, other times I wanted them directly out the side of the boat. Having the flexability to move them like this made the setup for me.