Boat Safety: The Role of Quality LED Boat Navigation Lights
Navigation lighting is as much a part of marine safety as distress beacons and personal floatation devices. That’s why any time you’re traveling Australian territorial waters, even inland waterways, your boat is required to have nighttime navigation lighting. It’s a rule that applies to rowboats and sailing vessels alike, making it also an indicator of just how seriously you need to take the brightness and reliability of your marine globes.
If your boat is still equipped with costly, low lumen marine lights and fixtures, now is a great time to consider upgrading your navigation lighting to LEDs. Not only are they brighter, they’re significantly more cost effective over the long term; and these are just a few of the benefits they offer over their classic incandescent counterparts.
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Let’s be honest: while navigation lighting may not be at the top of your boat’s maintenance checklist, it’s like any other system onboard that has an impact on safety and efficiency. It’s especially important, however, if you’re regularly on the water between sunset and sunrise. You want your boat to have the best illumination available, and you can trust high-lumen LED boat navigation lights to give you the visibility you need to stay safe in the darkness.
With nearly 90% less energy consumption than incandescent-type lighting, and the ability to reach full intensity almost instantaneously, the advantages of LEDs are impossible to ignore. And, when it comes to compliance with Convention on the International Regulation for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG) guidance for boats when visibility is restricted, LED navigating lights are the best choice for:
- Clearly marking your boat’s location, along with its approximate length;
- Announcing whether you’re moving, and if you are, your approximate direction and speed; and,
- Identifying the type of boat you have, and whether it’s sail- or motor-powered.
Navigating lights are crucial to ensuring that other boats and vessels are aware of your position and speed at all times, and no-glare LED marine navigation lights fill the requirement perfectly. Even when compared to high intensity Xenon HIDs, the increased focus and vastly better light distribution of marine LEDs allow them to project to an output distance that can, depending on conditions, be as much as 20% further. That makes LED navigating lights as much of an investment in your safety, as the safety of all marine traffic.
Marine LED Benefits That You Can Count On
With compact size and maximum brightness, their most easily identifiable attributes, LED boat navigation lights offer a entire boatload of perks that effectively leave all other marine-grade incandescents and halogens squarely in the dark.
- More light, more efficiency. LED navigating lights produce considerably more lumens than incandescent-type bulbs at less wattage, ultimately placing less of a power drain on your boat’s batteries.
- Greater durability. Unlike the delicate filaments in incandescent and halogen bulbs, the rugged semiconductor circuitry in LED marine navigation lights for sale are easily able to withstand the stresses and vibration of onboard installation, as well as are less susceptible to corrosion and temperature changes.
- Longer lifespans. By eliminating the wasteful heat that eventually weakens incandescent filaments to the point of failure, LED navigating lights are capable of lasting up to 50,000 hours (10 -25 times longer than filament-type globes), while simultaneously reducing the risk of any heat-related problems.
Suffice it to say, no matter if you’re simply installing a new anchor light, or contemplating undertaking a major refit, you need to consider how beneficial switching to LED boat navigation lights can be for safety. Not only does the cleaner output of LEDs have the range to significantly increase awareness of your presence and movement, they also remove the possibility of high temperature incandescents causing a fire.
All the LEDs You Need to Complete Your Boat’s Safety Circle
Marine LED refit kits have been available for awhile, with the sealed and fully-contained construction used on modern LED navigation light assemblies offering the incomparable reliability needed to hold up against the most severe UV and environmental exposure. Lighting manufacturers like Hella Marine, Lalizas, and Easterner are at the forefront of solid-state marine lighting design, and their premium LED boat navigation light lineups for both sail- and motor-powered boats including:
- Anchor lights. This white, 360° marine navigation light is also known as an all-around light, is typically mounted on the highest point of a boat, and is used to indicate that it is anchored.
- Stern lights. These aft-facing white navigating lights shine 135° aft and 67.5° forward on each side, and combine with sidelights to form complete port and starboard illumination.
- Bi- and tri-colour lights. Green and red bi-colour navigating lights provide side navigation for sail-powered boats and motor-powered boats under 40′, while mast-mounted green, red, and white tri-colour lights perform the same for sail-powered boats when they’re under sail.
- Port and starboard sidelights. These solid-coloured green and red lights are similar to bi-coloured lights, and are designed to illuminate 112.5° to the side of a boat, with red facing outward from the port side, and green facing outward from the starboard side.
- Masthead lights. White masthead navigating lights used on powered boats offer 225° of forward illumination, and form a complete 360° of illumination around your boat when combined with the stern light.
The positional overlap between many of these navigation lights for boats illustrates how they’re capable of being used on different types of boats. That’s to say, regardless of whether your boat is paddle-, sail-, or motor-powered, or if you’re using it in a pushing or towing capacity, the position and brightness of your navigating lights matters. Your boat’s manufacturer has already taken care of the positioning – switching your factory lights over to LEDs completes the circle of safety.
The Final Word
At the end of the day, navigating lights are about more than just keeping you and your boat safe. They’re about ensuring that all marine traffic stays safe when visibility is restricted. That’s why you want the brightest, and most reliable lighting available.
No matter if you’re on the water after sunset, or cautiously motoring your way through thick coastal sea fog, high lumen LED lights are going to help you stay safe and avoid any collisions. They’re an affordable, long lasting purchase that you won’t regret making.
