Easy No-wire Navigation Lights

Cap'n Pete · May 26, 2016

Back when I was rigging my kayaks and canoes for early-morning and dusk/early evening excursions, I had always wanted to come up with a solution for the required navigation lights without filling my vessels full of yet more hardware, holes, wires, etc, but I never found any ideas I really liked enough to employ. Eventually, after searching through myriad battery-operated lights I came across a set on Amazon which fit the bill perfectly: Inexpensive, a lifetime warranty, and adaptable to almost any vessel needing a simple set of front navigation lights for those times you end up on the water as darkness takes over.

The holder is simply fashioned out of a short piece of 1/2" pvc with end caps. The lights themselves have built in straps which allow them to be wrapped to a cleat on the bow. Installation time is faster than it takes to get bit by the first mosquito after sundown, and they can be installed without modification to the boat, assuming you have a cleat somewhere near the bow. My light jumps from yak to canoe to boat in seconds, which I think is about as cost effective as one could hope for. Hopefully my idea can help solve the issue for someone else looking for an easy solution to this common project- Happy Boating!

Johnny · May 26, 2016

ummmmm - - - - I went and looked at Amazon.com to see
just how they were listing these lights..... many they sell
are far from USCG approved..... I am only imagining that
they are intended to be used in electric or human powered
zones only. Not in an area where water traffic is 30 miles an hour.
Here in Florida, we experience several waterway crashes,
property damage, personal injury and deaths each year
due to high speed, impaired and just being stupid on the water
after dark.

My very personal opinion would be to follow the Golden Rule
of boating - "SEE and BE SEEN"......
I personally would not use anything less than USCG approved lights
that are "properly displayed" on a boat.
I guess that the 21 years in the US Navy and 6 years in the USCG Auxiliary
has burned the Navigational Rules of the Road into my brain.

Pete, if you are going to use these lights on the PVC, I would recommend
you try to find a way to place a card or something between the lights
so they will display correctly to any possible oncoming traffic.

jus my Dos Centavos

.

perchjerker · May 26, 2016

I agree with Johnny, I would never use those

for one there is nothing in the middle of them separating them from each other. What do they look like from the side at night from another approaching boat? Can you tell what color you are looking at or is it just a blob of light

for a portable light, I would get something like this

https://www.walmart.com/ip/16606432...69061072&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=78911099192&veh=sem

Cap'n Pete · May 26, 2016

Johnny said:
ummmmm - - - - I went and looked at Amazon.com to see
just how they were listing these lights..... many they sell
are far from USCG approved..... I am only imagining that
they are intended to be used in electric or human powered
zones only. Not in an area where water traffic is 30 miles an hour.
Here in Florida, we experience several waterway crashes,
property damage, personal injury and deaths each year
due to high speed, impaired and just being stupid on the water
after dark.

My very personal opinion would be to follow the Golden Rule
of boating - "SEE and BE SEEN"......
I personally would not use anything less than USCG approved lights
that are "properly displayed" on a boat.
I guess that the 21 years in the US Navy and 6 years in the USCG Auxiliary
has burned the Navigational Rules of the Road into my brain.

Pete, if you are going to use these lights on the PVC, I would recommend
you try to find a way to place a card or something between the lights
so they will display correctly to any possible oncoming traffic.

jus my Dos Centavos

I guess I screwed up on that one, eh? I was just looking for a quick cure for my kayak for when I get caught a short ways off the shore at dusk... Of course I would NEVER use them on a regular boat out on open water, I should have included that info as well- I apologize.

.

Al U Minium · May 26, 2016

Apology not accepted. The lights shown are awesome. Better to have some light than none. Hang a lifejacket off the bow and attach lights to it if separation bothers you. Hang one off each breast pocket. Whatever you can do to make it safer for you and others around you. Cheers to you for mentioning it!

Johnny · May 26, 2016

Oh that is quite ok Pete !!

we all must be very careful of recommending a product.
if you only use the lights to get to or from your landing
of a short distance, they still must meet specs to let
other boaters know your intentions.

The biggest concern I have is that other novice boaters that
have NO CLUE as to navigation rules would think that it is ok
to use on their boat at 20mph in a low to no visibility situation.
even fog or rain is very dangerous to boaters that are not
familiar with the Navigational Rules of the Road.

Amazon.com has MANY good books on nautical navigation for the small boater.
some good used ones can be had for only a couple of bucks.
Well worth the investment to be safe on the water.
Also, many websites on the old InnerWeb can be a good educational tool.
happy and SAFE boating to you and yours !

surfman · May 27, 2016

I believe you could separate them and attach them to each cleat on each side of the boat. I would only think you would use something like that in an emergency and in fact I think they might not be a bad thing to have on hand in an emergency. Say one light goes out, you just clip one of those on and your good. Even a bad light is better than no light but you should not rely on them solely, especially if you plan to go out at night a lot.

iam2sam · May 27, 2016

I'm a fan of diy solutions in general and PVC creativity specifically. I think the separation issue would be easy to resolve. Use a 45 or 90 degree fitting to provide an angle. Find a small piece of scrap flexible plastic (my recycling bin is full of candidates weekly), cut a hole the diameter of the PVC angle fitting and trim so it slides on between the green and red lamps. The angle may make it more difficult to secure to the cleat. If so, drill a hole in each end cap (no reason the PVC tube needs to be watertight) and run bungee cord through it. I have had to provide battery nav lighting for a canoe. I settled on the Attwood battery-powered set (same set is available under several brand names, not picking specifically on Attwood) for $30 or so, and those leave a lot to be desired, particuarly in the reliability department. If your bow light doesn't switch on, it can't be seen at all from either side

It shouldn't be very difficult to design a better (in every sense of the word) home-brew battery light set beginning with ideas such as this one for far less cost.

Apex Predator · May 28, 2016

It's not a smart idea to make power boaters think your kayak is one of them either. They would expect you to be as fast and maneuverable as they are. Very dangerous. An all around white light is what you want on a non-powered kayak.

Al U Minium · May 28, 2016

A 40 foot boat doing 20 knots running radar runs over a 14 foot aluminum boat. As the hull scraped along the bottom of the 40 footer, the captain wondered what the scraping sound was. In the wake off the stern the aluminum boat made one last show before sinking out of site. Fortunately no one was injured but don't think running lights will save you. The Coast Guard may write a nice report though.

Johnny · May 28, 2016

Reflecting back to what I said earlier - - - -

SEE - and - BE SEEN

day or night

.

Ebug · May 28, 2016

I used to be an avid kayaker....both day and night and always had the USCG mandated lighting on my vessel.

These days I have a power boat and I fish at night almost exclusively. I cannot tell you how many kayaks I have run up on at night that have either no lights at all, or a small LED light on their head. I am not sure what these people are thinking.

In my opinion, I feel the USCG Regs are not specific enough for kayaks. They are just too low to the water for normal rules to apply. If I had my way, a kayak at night would be required to have a mast with white light at least 6 feet above the vessel. Need to get these lights up where boat captains line of vision are. Strobing the light would be even better to distinguish that it is a kayak and low to the water.

Just the personal opinion of a guy that deals with kayakers at night regularly.

Rob

Al U Minium · May 28, 2016

I like your idea of a strobe light.

Johnny · May 28, 2016

Please correct me if I am wrong. But, isn't the strobe considered
a distress light ?? I have a couple in my survival box on my boat
just in case I am stranded at night. Also, there is a small one on
each life jacket. The military requires all pilots and sailors at sea
to have one on their life jackets.
So maybe some thought should be put into displaying a strobe on
a watercraft at night..... it may draw unwanted attention thinking
someone is in distress.

jus my Dos Centavos

Ebug · May 28, 2016

Johnny, if you are kayaker at night and there are boats moving around you are in distress. LOL.

It was just and idea. Anything is better than what is happening now.

Rob

iam2sam · May 30, 2016

Ebug said:
I used to be an avid kayaker....both day and night and always had the USCG mandated lighting on my vessel.

These days I have a power boat and I fish at night almost exclusively. I cannot tell you how many kayaks I have run up on at night that have either no lights at all, or a small LED light on their head. I am not sure what these people are thinking.

In my opinion, I feel the USCG Regs are not specific enough for kayaks. They are just too low to the water for normal rules to apply. If I had my way, a kayak at night would be required to have a mast with white light at least 6 feet above the vessel. Need to get these lights up where boat captains line of vision are. Strobing the light would be even better to distinguish that it is a kayak and low to the water.

Just the personal opinion of a guy that deals with kayakers at night regularly.

Rob

When I used the Atwood battery lights in my canoe, I used 18" sections of wooden dowels that had plastic screw connectors (sold for use as variable length painters poles) to mount my lights fore and aft. That made it easy to achieve a specific elevation by adding or removing sections. Many places I paddled required navigating under a flat bridge with little or no headroom, which made the ability to quickly take down the lights imperative. I tried to modify all my canoe operating and fishing items that required a long handle (fish/crab net, boat hook, etc.) to use the same coarse standard thread as the painters poles. I wasn't 100% successful, but did pretty well in that regard.

iam2sam · May 30, 2016

Apex Predator said:
It's not a smart idea to make power boaters think your kayak is one of them either. They would expect you to be as fast and maneuverable as they are. Very dangerous. An all around white light is what you want on a non-powered kayak.

I think that any power boater so ignorant as to make unwarranted and unsafe assumptions about the nature and position of another craft from a quick glance at the nav lights would be just as likely to carelessly run over an unpowered craft displaying only the single all around light. I'm not disputing that such boaters exist - they are far too common. My personal preference is to be as visible as possible, and then make my decisions based on the assumption that the other boater is going to make the worst decision possible. Pretty much reflects my highway driving attitude was well.

bobberboy · May 31, 2016

On a related subject, I got those flags used on recumbent bikes to mount on my kayaks to be visible in the daytime. I'm not confident that the operators of some of those big-assed boats can see a kayak that is literally only about a foot above the water surface. My kayaks are red/white and blue/white. If I had camo ones I'd be certain to have a flag or something to make me visible in the daylight.

As far as the nav lights go, is it necessary to have them at the far bow and stern ends of the boat? Without landing to install or turn on the lights I don't see, at least in a sit-inside kayak, how it would be possible to reach the lights while on the water.

perchjerker · May 31, 2016

nav lights are to go in very specific locations.

Look closely at Johnny's diagram for details.

jethro · May 31, 2016

I'm not going to make any more waves in this thread about the red/green nav lights, but I am seeing a disturbing trend with kayakers and those in cartop boats... they are using headlamps and/or flashlights to navigate after dark. In my state that is HIGHLY illegal and it's obvious a lot of people don't understand why... to all newbie boaters- DO NOT INHIBIT MY NIGHT VISION by using a high power flashlight or headlamp as a navigation light. It's not only dangerous to others, it's illegal. Thanks to LED technology, extremely high power lights are readily available for short money and they don't realize how bright these lights can be on the surface of the water. My night vision is very important to me while travelling on my boat at night!

Easy No-wire Navigation Lights

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