Flotsam & Jetsam
Regarding our article Wiring the Mast, reader Rick Whitaker writes:
Paul's article should start the way it finished. Anchor lights atop sailboat masts are a bad idea for several reasons:
A PIA to wire one inside the mast or up a shroud, either on a small boat that one must take down mast to fish the wiring, and worse on a large boat that is very difficult to do with mast in place.
Changing the light bulb is just as big a PIA as installing it.
Unsafe because it can easily be missed if there are stars/planets or lights on shore. You need to illuminate the top of your boat to let the drunks ripping around anchorages after dark see your boat. Think of you in a broken-down car on a dark night by a busy highway with only a tiny light on a 25 ft pole above your car.
Expensive. Long wiring requires larger wire if incandescent type.
Way better is to rig a light about 3-5 feet above the boat cabin, from the backstay. Plug it in and stow it when not needed.
Cheap, simple, effective, SAFE.
Please pass this on the SCA readers.
Rick Whitaker, Birch Bay
Retired PE, boatbuilder, sailor
Glenn Woodbury sent this note following our request for suggestions for a Powerboat for the Sailor:
Devlin's Lit’l Coot. More of a motor sailor than a straight power boat, with good accommodations.
Rick Pratt also had a note about Powerboats for the Sailor:
I suggest they look at displacement powerboats. They are already accustomed to the slow pleasant progress of a sailboat..pure displacement mostly... so speed is not likely to be one of their desires.
Plus, planing powerboats can be extremely rough and tiring for any sort of long voyage. Great for getting to the fish and back in a short time, but potentially pretty brutal for an entire day on the water, much less a week. And they are very hungry fuel guzzlers.
Comfort and speed can be retained if they want a BIG powerboat, but they don't easily adapt to gunkole waters.But that mini tug is too tiny to be a comfortable mid to long distance cruiser in my estimation. Cute and a fun day tripper, not a long legged boat.
After reading Dave Zeiger’s article Why We Sail Engine-Free, Edward Haile wrote:
This is so good it ought to be published hard bound gold stamped. Hats off to Dave Z. My own two cents, oft repeated, is: GOD INVENTED HELL. IT DIDN'T WORK. SO GOD INVENTED OUTBOARD MOTORS. AND THEY DON'T WORK EITHER.
I don't anchor the small boat(s) overnight but we do swing on our keelboat's ground tackle. That boat came with a non-working masthead anchor light and I havent climbed or paid for a rigger to go up the 45' stick to replace the bulb or fixture. Instead, we use a Davis Mega-Light Utility Light (LED). Although not USCG Approved specifically as an anchor light, it does meet the visibility requirement as an all-around white light visible for up to 2 miles (farther if using the supplied incandescent bulb). It plugs into the 12v ACC/lighter socket via an extension cable. I hoist it on the main halyard with a carabiner securing it to a two-line bridle clove hitched to port & stbd lifelines. It lights the foredeck, has a dusk/dawn sensor, and burns less than an amp overnight. It takes only a couple of minutes to rig it up (vs simply flipping the anchor light switch on the panel). I completely agree with the idea to illuminate the deck and cabintop (which puts it closer to the line of sight of the drunk nighttime powerboater), and the potential issue of an operator mis-identifying a masthead light as a star or planet. It also helps identify our boat in a crowded anchorage.
We used a hurricane lantern as an anchor light. No backstay, so hung from the boom on our Paceship 20.