When is an anchor light required?

[Jack O'Brien]

I agree with Chip - I want to be seen but don't want to be seen as brilliant.

I have a Davis Mega anchor light on top of the mast. I have a two-cell white LED "courtesy light" on the spreader aimed downward which illuminates the deck, lowered mainsail, bimini, etc. It gives just enough light to keep from falling off deck on a dark night and not enough to annoy. Neither light draws enough current to worry about. Whether an oncoming boater is looking up or straight ahead he should see my boat.

And especially if I put the two-foot tall neon pink flamingo on top of the boom!

[Tony D-26X_SusieQ]

It apperat that I am responsible for posting some missinformation here. I appoligise if I have missled anyone. I was passing on information that had been missquoted to me. Apparently they thought the Mac met the less than 7 meter rule. I should have looked it up before putting my foot in my mouth.
In order to clarify this matter I have looked the Rule up in the Nav rules publiched by the Coast Guard. Here are the purtenent portions of Rule 30.

Rule 30
Anchored Vessels and Vessels Aground

(a) A vessel at anchor shall exhibit where it can best be seen:
(i) In the fore part, an all-round white light or one ball; and
(ii) At or near the stern and at a lower level than the light prescribed in subparagraph (i), an all-round white light
(b) A vessel of less than 50 meters in length may exhibit an all-round white light where it can best be seen instead of the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) of this rule.
(c) A vessel at anchor may, and a vessel of 100 meters or more in length shall, also use the available working or equivalent lights to illuminate her decks.

(e) A vessel of less than 7 meters in length, when at anchor, not in or near a narrow channel, fairway or anchorage, or where other vessels normally operate, shall not be required to exhibit the lights or shape prescribed in sections (a) and (b) of this Rule.

Hope this makes it as clear as possible from these rules. These quotes are the same for the International and the Inland versions.

[dclark]

I don't think there is anything that says a sailboat has to have the light up top. Look at those pole things they have for the powerboats. You could easily install one of these on the stern and store it below when not in use. I think the only reason it's on the mast is because it's the perfect place for it. Of course if I ever decided to leave the mast at home, I'd lose my light and VHF also so that could be an advantage to not putting it on the mast.

[Billy]

I basically do as Dave describes. I have a 3 foot all around light from a powerboat that I wired with a 12V plug. I either bungee it to my pedestal or one of the stanchions and plug it into the powerport on the pedestal. When not in use, it goes in the dark hole down below (aft bunk).

[Chip Hindes]

I don't think there is anything that says a sailboat has to have the light up top.

Not specifically, but the requirement is for 360 degreee visibility, and mounting it below the mast top compromises that visibility. For the vast majority of cruising sailboats, with fatter masts, bigger RF headsails, etcetera, the amount of blockage forward is signifcant; that's why every diagram of lighting requirements for saiboats pictures the anchor light at the top of the mast.

For the Mac with its puny mast and a light mounted as far aft as possible, the amount of blockage is small, probably not more than a couple degrees; but the legal requirement is 360 degrees, not 358 or 357 degrees.

Could you get a citation for doing such a thing? Certainly. Will you get a citation? Highly unlikely. Are you presenting ambiguous, possibly confusing lighting? To someone approaching you directly, from dead ahead, yes. Your choice.

With the mast down you have no masthead light, so you can't motor at night either. I have an additional all round light on a 6' pole which doubles as my masthead light and anchor light. It has a short pigtail with a connector which matches the same deck fitting as the masthead light. I bungee it to the lowered mast.

[Mark Prouty]

For the Mac with its puny mast.

I think dimensionally challenged mast would be more appropriate.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

I knew I'd seen this somewhere. It took a little digging, but here is the fine print regarding the 360 degree all around white anchor light rule.

International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea
ANNEX I
Position and Technical Details of Lights and Shapes
9. Horizontal sectors
(b) All-round lights shall be so located as not to be obscured by masts, topmasts or structures within angular sectors of more than 6 degrees, except anchor lights prescribed in Rule 30, which need not be placed at an impracticable height above the hull.

Here is the Whole Document.

Similar to Bill, I hang a Davis mega light off my backstay. I use a shackle to attach it to the backstay and then hoist it up with the main halyard as high as the cord allows when it is plugged in at my pedestal 12v outlet. This places the mast as the only obstruction from dead ahead and as we all know, the mac never points the same way for long when at anchor so it's not out of view for long.

I also think this has an advantage to a masthead light. The Davis light puts out light not only horizontally for other boats to see, but it also puts light down on to the body of the boat. I think this makes the boat even more visable to those driving through anchorages. Your light isn't lost in a sea of white lights high above the water. It also makes it easier to figur out which boat to go back to in the dinghy after dark.

[craiglaforce]

Does anyone know the candlepower of the Davis Megalight? I recall reading when I bought one a few years ago that they were not a CG approved anchor light. That may be, but if I believe the rule is stated such that anything with a certain visability range and candle power meets the requirement, hence leading to my question.

A kerosene lamp is probably not approved by the CG either, but if it puts out the required amount of light then it is probably legal.

The Davis M. light seems pretty bright to me, but I don't know if it meets the brightness requirement or not. I've also heard people post that when approaching their lighted boat at night from a dingy, they were suprised at how dim the davis megalight appeared from the water and that they could not see it nearly as well as the anchor lights on other boats.

I really don't know the answer and was wondering if anyone had researched this. I use my megalight hanging on the backstay flag halyard I have back there to supplement the main anchor light on the mast and to give some light in the cockpit. I like it because it does not require 4 hours of hole drilling to install and has such a low power draw. I was also having some corrosion problems with my deck plug for the mast anchor lite and it was not what I would call more than 90% reliable so I was glad to have a backup lit. I am replacing the fancy deck plug this spring with a simple flat 4 trailer connector sealed into the hole from the old deck plug with 5200 and will put 2 switches in the cabin for the anchor and the steaming lights.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

(e) A vessel of less than 7 meters in length, when at anchor, not in or near a narrow channel, fairway or anchorage, or where other vessels normally operate, shall not be required to exhibit the lights or shape prescribed in sections (a) and (b) of this Rule.

Even this rule is rather silly, seems to only apply if you are operating a 20 foot boat out in the middle of nowhere (where no other vessels normally operate). Now how often does that happen?

The Davis M. light seems pretty bright to me, but I don't know if it meets the brightness requirement or not.

Since I don't have an anchor light, and since my steaming light plug also has corrosion problems, I looked up the Davis light in the West catalog. It says it is visible for up to 2 nm. And if Bill is correct that the rule for an anchor light is to be visible up to 2 miles...then it would be bright enough to be legal I would think. Seems like Davis wouldn't have made the 2 nm claim in their product lit if it wasn't tied to a reg.

[Tony D-26X_SusieQ]

The only power requirement for an anchor light is it must be visible from 2nm. That takes surprisingly little power. If it is necessary for another boat to be able to see us from 2nm out in order to avoid hitting us then it seems to me that he must be going way to fast to be aproaching an anchorage. But then I'm probably not qualified to write those rules. If you can find your boat from a tender then you are probably just fine with your lighting scheme. The rule does not say the light has to be near the mast just above the deck. By moving it away from the mast you will probably avoid the mast blockage, and lighting the deck should make your boat plenty visible if the other guy is maintaining a proper watch.

[Chip Hindes]

(b) All-round lights shall be so located as not to be obscured by masts, topmasts or structures within angular sectors of more than 6 degrees, except anchor lights prescribed in Rule 30, which need not be placed at an impracticable height above the hull.

Thanks for finding this; I had never seen it before. Looks like it pays to read the fine print.

Based on this rule, a light more than about four feet aft of the mast wouldn't be considered obscured.

If it is necessary for another boat to be able to see us from 2nm out in order to avoid hitting us then it seems to me that he must be going way to fast to be aproaching an anchorage. But then I'm probably not qualified to write those rules.

The requirement that it be "visible" would seem to me to mean "just barely". Judging at night whether a tiny pinprick of light is a firefly ten feet in front of the boat, an anchor light at 2nm, or just nother star at two trillion miles can be quite difficult. I believe the idea is that, if you can see it at 2nm, by the time you get close enough for there to be a danger it will be much more visible, and hopefully by then you will have determined that what you see is an anchor light and not one of those other things.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Davis does mention that their light is not specifically coast guard approved as an anchor light, but then the rules being international, say nothing about the light being US coast guard approved. I find the mega light is plenty bright, as bright as all the others in an anchorage, and at least shows that I am trying to obey the rules by showing a light. In general I find only about half the boats out there even do this so I think there are much more likely targets for a ticket than me.

The Davis light is also nice in that it turns itself off at dawn. It also serves other uses. We hang it under the bimini as a cockpit light occasionally. It goes anywhere there is a 12v plug and the cord will reach.

[Tony D-26X_SusieQ]

I suppose the final test is if nobody runs into you then your fine.