DIY navigation lights upgraded with LEDs

Roger Hughes upgrades his 42-year-old navigation lights with LED lamp replacements and is delighted with the result

The Down East 45ft boats, built in California in the 1970s, are beamy, heavy displacement ocean cruising boats. Yet they were fitted with navigation lights so puny I wouldn’t even consider fitting them on a dinghy!

The port and starboard lights on Britannia, my own Down East schooner, were the tiny tear-drop style (also called sharks, or bird’s eyes) mounted on the hull below the toe-rail, only 4ft above the waterline. They could easily be temporarily obscured in even a moderate sea.

The stern light was no better, mounted centrally on the transom. Add to these the original, tiny 10W festoon bulbs and the boat of her size had very ineffective navigation lights.

The possible consequences of not being seen on a black moonless night doesn’t bear thinking about, yet you see boats with totally inadequate navigation lights everywhere. I decided to make sure Britannia was not one of them.

Even after removing and inspecting one of these tiny lights, I was not able to find a manufacturer or the supposed visibility range. Rules for a boat Britannia’s size state this should be two nautical miles, but their location made me doubtful they could even be seen at half a mile in a flat calm. I valued my life and my boat above this and decided to change them for bigger, more efficient lamps mounted in a more conspicuous location.

There are lots of different makes of navigation lights, but before buying I had to decide the best place to locate new port and starboard lights.