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Herald
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(new user)
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27/05/2008 18:38
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Nav Lights
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Slowly nearing the end of getting Herald ready for going back in the water. Was looking at the Nav lights over the weekend. She is currently fitting with electric nav lights on the pulpit and pushpit. Red and green are minced and need replacing due to water ingress, aft seems OK. Got me thinking though...... Should I stay with electric or go back more in keeping with when she was built and use oil lamps? Are they are still legal? Anyone got any thoughts / suggestions??
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Re: Nav Lights
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Stay with electric ... I'm just upgrading to Aqua Signal 40's. She doesn't really need them at 11m LOA but I'd rather stand a better chance of being seen with the 40's. Davey & Co do copper covers for 40's if you're interested in preserving a traditional appearance.
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Re: Nav Lights
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Oil is unlikely to be legal nowadays, and in todays crowded waters you dont want to risk not being seen anyway.
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Re: Nav Lights
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Oil is perfectly legal, and proper oil fired nav lights (not cheap repros) burn at the required intensity.
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Re: Nav Lights
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How do they guarantee that then ?
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Re: Nav Lights
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Proper oil Nav lights have the correct size wicks to burn at the required intensity. I regularly use a proper oil fired anchor light, (a copper one with a dioptic lense) and it can be seen for miles, given that there isn't naff all visibilty due to fog. In which case I have to join the local bell ringers!
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Re: Nav Lights
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If you wanna leave a small barbie that wont cook a sausage on the top of your mast then thats up to you . Not for me 
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Re: Nav Lights
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Quote:
If you wanna leave a small barbie that wont cook a sausage on the top of your mast then thats up to you . Not for me
Well why would it be for you? 
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Re: Nav Lights
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You light the anchor light for your own pleasure
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Re: Nav Lights
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Er no, I light the thing so that my boat can be seen when lying to anchor in the dark.
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Re: Nav Lights
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Ditto Chrusty1's comment. I use a very substantial old copper paraffin anchor light, courtesy of Ebay, which kicks out light, and burns for about 20 hours. It's legal, doesn't drain the battery, and adds to the charm.
As for using oil for the running lights, I'm in 2 minds. I actually have new DHR oil lamps which are very good, and burn well, yet they have a design flaw I've not yet thought of a solution for. I've the 4" lamps, which are the smallest practical size. The problem is the centre of the flame sits above the point of focus of the dioptric lens, which means you get a downward pointing beam, and very reduced visibility horizontally. I think theres an easy solution to this by reducing the height the wick burns at, and as I intend to fit these with very bright LED bulbs when such become cheaper and better, so I keep them as reserves at the moment and continue to drain my batteries with the Hella's. But yes, I've used oil lights on other boats. The only problem is the faff of refilling them daily, trimming the wicks so they don't soot up, and doing this on passage in a seaway makes for an interesting job.
Never use an oil Steaming lamp - the faffing about with twin halyards just for the light is just... silly. I'm doing a cosmetic job with my new masthead light as I'm disguising an Aquasignal 40 masthead by surrounding it in the shell of a cheap repro copper lamp. From 6 feet away, looks like the real thing and burns at the flick of a switch, and is "type approved". I'd like to get type approved inserts for the sidelights, but technology is racing ahead of the insurers so far, but that's next winter's project.
I think oil lights would certainly look the part on Cleone, but the problem is that modern lights have to be disguised, either by using brass or copper covers from Daveys, or Toplicht (actually, Toplicht do amazing kit, the catalogue is Old Boat Porn on Steroids and its free!). And I've yet to find decent LED inserts to fit the lamps. My chief aim is to get LED's mounted so that the oil burners can be easily reinserted into the light in case of emergency. Maybe an email to DHR is called for? I see a niche market opportunity for someone.
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Re: Nav Lights
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Sorry to be nosey... I just read your endorsement of Toplicht and have to agree.
The problem with the catalogue they sent me was it is in German. Then I found this link: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl...%2Bde%26hl%3Den
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Re: Nav Lights
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Wish I found that before I put in my order. I had to resort to cut 'n' pasting paragraphs into Word and asking it to translate. Worth the effort, though.
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Re: Nav Lights
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But then those of us who use oil lamps as anchor lights, generally hang them in free space in the foretriangle where they are likely to be seen.
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