Are lighthouses still useful?

[PNK]

I was motivated to ask this question after reading a good article about the last manned lighthouse in the U.S., although it could be related to the posts from Weebles and others about cruising offshore.
Turns out that Little Brewster Island, in Boston's outer harbor, is the last lighthouse in the country run by a full-time keeper, in this case a woman. When she retires, she is unlikely to be replaced, so all of them will be 100% automated.
Sailing offshore heading north from Florida, I remember appreciating the lights we passed, like those along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts, but it was more from being reassured that GPS and charts were being confirmed. And maybe I am too cautious - or chicken - to consider entering an unfamiliar harbor at night, regardless of the light. I have never boated into Boston Harbor, so I am not familiar with that particular light, but am sure many TF'ers have.
In the days of sail these lighthouses were often the only navigational aid and, before there were engines captains had to sail when the wind and tides were favorable, and couldn't always wait for daytime visibility.
But it made me wonder, do you still find lighthouses useful for navigation, or have buoys, GPS, radar, etc. made them something of a relic, nice to visit, but no longer that helpful?
Peter

PS: Mexico still has over 100 lighthouses- the US has almost 1000 - which some of you may be familiar with.

 

[psneeld]

I find the nostalgic like many things in boating, being from a time before electronics really caught on.....they like many old things have a fond place in my heart but really not really what they used to be.

But even small towers with both lights and electronic identification have been around for 30+ or more years.... many boaters couldn't do visual piloting if their life depended on it... look at how many wind up on beaches and shoals despite advanced electronic nav.

 

[Ken E.]

British Columbia still has manned lighthouses. Critics would say they're expensive and unnecessary, but it's nice having a human there, observing and reporting sea state conditions. I'm glad they are still in service.

 

[ksanders]

Lets separate navigation lighting and the humans that support it.

I like the fact that humans have jobs, and keep up lighthouses. It is especially nice to see a nice lighthouse and grounds in Canada.

But...

The lights they produce are extremely valuable. What they do is provide a visual confirmation of your location when approaching a change in terrain, or hazard.

I use lights constantly at night and feel that they help provide for safe navigation.

 

[STB]

Lets separate navigation lighting and the humans that support it.

I like the fact that humans have jobs, and keep up lighthouses. It is especially nice to see a nice lighthouse and grounds in Canada.

But...

The lights they produce are extremely valuable. What they do is provide a visual confirmation of your location when approaching a change in terrain, or hazard.

I use lights constantly at night and feel that they help provide for safe navigation.

This ^

 

[diver dave]

Imo: Better use of that money is derelict boat removal.

 

[mvweebles]

Ironic for me this was posted today. Coming into Mazatlan in the early morning hours this morning, I tried to pickup lights and a couple light houses. The issue I had was the charts (including Navionics) for Mexico don't have clean sectors listed. It's really hard to pick a light and correlate it to what I was seeing. The old raster charts has the light pattern printed on it - no click required. ENCs are okay. But only for charts in the US, at least here, not that useful.

Lighthouse data is useful, but nearly as useful as it once was. Bit of a relic from a bygone era I suppose. Quaint and I love they're there. But useful? Debatable. Too bad.

Peter

 

[psneeld]

One can separate the light from the light house structure to further dissect the subject.

Lights of modern design can be as effective and way easier to maintain and fund.

Hate to see them disappear, but the money is better spent elsewhere if budgets stay the way they are.

As far as the human element providing more than light...great point but there are other way to collect and transmit that data .

 

[SIBERNUT]

The sweatshirt lobby insures their continuity

 

[alormaria]

I'm fur'em.

 

[Bmarler]

Useful as any navigation light I’d say. I know people tend to not really pay much attention to nav markers these days, but I still log them.

 

[Mako]

I used to love cruising up the Straight of Juan de Fuca at night, pickup up lighthouses, gauging their patterns, comparing against my paper charts, taking a bearing and plotting. Also plotted dead reckoning as well and took GPS positions. It was redundancy and felt good to still have old fashioned navigation skills.

Whether or not lighthouses are still practical in today's world of GPS, plot charters and iPhones, to me, boating is also about the lore of old... traditions and nostalgia.

 

[O C Diver]

The general cost of maintaining the light in the lighthouse has become negligible. Most (if not all) are LED powered by solar panels. So keeping the light and audible fog horn operating is truly insignificant.

Now the second component is the structure. I don't know what the percentage is, but a large number of lighthouses are actually maintained by historical societies, national park service, and state organizations. It's amazing how many lighthouse the USCG has wanted to do away with and historical societies have been formed to maintain and in many cases refurbish the structures. All the USCG has to do is provide and maintain the actual light system.

I'm in favor of having lighthouses, especially if the government only has to pay for the light.

Ted

 

[fgarriso]

I like to see them and confirm my electronic charts by them. But need them, NO. I have never seen a lighthouse moved on my charts.

 

[Hippocampus]

Still like sector lights and range lights. Particularly those with the moire like pattern. Any things that gets peoples head out of screens, increases situational awareness, and decreases risk of screen hypnosis is a good thing. As a measure twice cut once kind of person like the redundant check on the MFD.
A light in my home town was due for decommissioning . (Bug light). Locals put up the money to keep it maintained and functional. Pretty and a great fishing spot as well.

 

[Wxx3]

Lets separate navigation lighting and the humans that support it.

I like the fact that humans have jobs, and keep up lighthouses. It is especially nice to see a nice lighthouse and grounds in Canada.

But...

The lights they produce are extremely valuable. What they do is provide a visual confirmation of your location when approaching a change in terrain, or hazard.

I use lights constantly at night and feel that they help provide for safe navigation.

Yep.
There is a bewildering array of lights at night.
IMHO having an outside visual confirmation of position AND perspective is critically important for night time navigation.

 

[DBG8492]

Yep.
There is a bewildering array of lights at night.
IMHO having an outside visual confirmation of position AND perspective is critically important for night time navigation.

I think most recreational boaters rarely navigate at night. If it's cloudy and a new moon - or even worse storming - navigating a boat at night is one of the most disorienting and disconcerting experiences I've ever had.

I can still remember my first coastal night op over 30 years ago and I am quite happy I was working with someone who had over a decade of experience. Over time, it became second nature, but it takes both time and practice. Something that I realized two years ago on a solo approach to a sound near Savannah at 4 AM, in horrible weather, after.a 19 hour sail north from Jekyll Island. I was overcome with vertigo several times trying to stay in the channel - even with Navionics running. And I am - or used to be - very experienced with night time running in questionable conditions.

All of the electronics have insulated boaters from this and in my opinion, we aren't better off for it. Someone who has been using nothing but nav programs for a decade with little to no experience using just lights, charts, mag compass, and dead reckoning nav is going to be in a world of hurt if they have to have their first experience due to a failure of those systems. They could easily find themselves going in circles without realizing it. Or even worse, beached or on the rocks.

 

[psneeld]

One can argue long before electronics, plenty of people wound up on the rocks or the beach, it didn't take an over reliance on electronics to make it happen.

Airlines have an extraordinary safety record with pilots following a couple of needles or numbers without visual references to almost touchdown in horrible conditions and at speeds boaters can't even imagine.

I have done both...followed the little ship along a charted course line through an intricate and dangerous inlet in horrible conditions that I knew well and never felt safer, and run areas that I wasn't familiar with and didn't trust the charting and continuously backed it up with reference points.

The trick with electronic nav is to know when and where it is trustworthy...to the point of betting your life on it...or the old ways that can be full of gross errors. The gross errors are only mitigated by an amount of experience I doubt many recreational boaters truly have.

The discussion of lighthouses is relatively silly as far as safe navigation goes. there are so many alternatives now that are vastly more cost effective. While really cool, and I and many others love them for what they are...that is a different discussion than whether they are necessary.

Believe me, I had these budgetary discussions in the USCG around 30 years ago when the USCG started dumping the manning requirement and passing the infrastructure off to civilian foundations left and right.

 

[Don L]

Personally to me lighthouses now days are mostly something to land visit.

 

[DBG8492]

One can argue long before electronics, plenty of people wound up on the rocks or the beach, it didn't take an over reliance on electronics to make it happen.

Yes - seasoned sailors got confused and disoriented and wound up on the rocks or beach - a lot. Imagine some of today's video game skippers who suddenly lose their access to the only thing they've used for navigating whether for one day or ten years.

A good friend of mine sailed with me on my sailboat from Oriental, NC, down to Savannah after I first bought it. He was a delivery captain with years of experience. The first night was rough seas and cloudy - but no rain. We ran the engine with the main up for stability. He woke me up at 3 AM because the autopilot went down. The boat had twisted around multiple times and he couldn't get Navionics up on the tablet to ensure he had us back on course. I found we'd spun 180* and were headed due north - back the way we came. All I did was look at the magnetic compass on the bulkhead - that had slipped his mind in the confusion.

I don't really care about lighthouses one way or the other - my comment was in regards to Wxx3's comment about nighttime navigation in general and the fact that I believe it is a skill that every coastal captain should have and practice. There are plenty of charted lights for reference without lighthouses.

 

[Hippocampus]

Near shore and off shore I really like running at night. You “see” ships well before they’re hull up by the glow they produce in the sky. Fish boats are so lite up it takes effort to see their running lights but they are sure visible. The sky is amazing and you feel the rhythm of the sea closely. It’s a mystic beautiful time.
I don’t mind making a nighttime land fall approach in the dark either. Line up to a lighthouse or other landmark and head in. But for the actual landfall I want daylight . I particularly want no fog and good daylight in places like the ICW. All the electronics I have don’t help me dodge debris. A chart uploaded yesterday isn’t reliable for depths today. Same down south. Don’t dodge coral heads in the dark or run areas where the charts are 100y old British admiralty derived with sketchy updating.
The prudent navigator uses all available “aids to navigation “ and prioritize which to hold in ascendancy with good judgement. We run two different chart sources as a routine all the time. Even so when in the fog you sigh and take a deep breath when to see that light house where the chart says it should be.
Agree lighthouses are like paper charts. Still do like the sector ones telling me directly I’m on a safe course . Do like the variety, the history and beauty of them. Do want them preserved. Should it be on the public dollar? Maybe not. Have I donated for preservation? Yes, more than once and will continue to do so.

 

[Pete Meisinger]

Yes they are useful !

Not all boats and boaters have GPS and radar (1)

Even with GPS and Radar fog can play heck with your senses. Lighthouses bring a touch of reality and a sense of space to the traveler. (2)

Just the nostalgia they offer. The fog horn, the loneliness and the esthetic beauty. (3)

Brings me to the oft repeated feeling that I was born too late. I should have been a light house keeper. (4)

They give photographers something to do with their spare time. (5)

pete

pete

 

[mvweebles]

I think there's confusion between Lighthouses and ATONs, including range lights and other types of lights to assist a mariner to line-up on an approach (common on West Coast bars).

I love lighthouses. But do not believe they are useful in modern context. Bluntly, a boat in strange waters with no other navigation aid but a lighthouse swinging a light 20+ nms away is in deep do-do these days. They'd be running Dead Reckoning which is workable, but would mean extreme caution would be required to make landfall. Woud absolutely require paper charts and some decent charting tools and abilities, including working knowledge of trigonometry. All interesting and challenging, but hardly a justification for the usefulness of lighthouses.

Peter

 

[Shrew]

I'm torn. I find lighthouses extremely useful when travelling at night. You see the lighthouse very far out. That becomes, literally, my beacon. Once close enough, you can start picking up the lit buoys, cans and nuns. So I look at lighthouses for long range navigation and lit markers for closer range navigation.

On the other hand, I have to acknowledge that modern electronics have done away with their necessity.

I also like to specifically sight-see lighthouses, even if it's a drive-by. I love the nostalgia.

 

[DBG8492]

Near shore and off shore I really like running at night. You “see” ships well before they’re hull up by the glow they produce in the sky. Fish boats are so lite up it takes effort to see their running lights but they are sure visible. The sky is amazing and you feel the rhythm of the sea closely. It’s a mystic beautiful time.

100% agreed.

It's the one thing I'm going to miss the most about pure sailing. Under the cover of near-total darkness with no engine drone... Just you, the wind, and the ocean.

Nothing else quite like it.

 

[psneeld]

I always considered that part of sailing just part of my life's triad of how to live it....

1. things that make you contemplate the big picture (such as sailing under ideal situations)

2. things that bring joy

3. things that make you feel alive

sometimes things you do bring all 3 and not always fall into the same category for other people.....fortunately my journey has brought many highs.

 

[SteveK]

100% agreed.

It's the one thing I'm going to miss the most about pure sailing. Under the cover of near-total darkness with no engine drone... Just you, the wind, and the ocean.

Nothing else quite like it.

I remember that as well, great times. But as I age out no longer as important to do. But I have had power night transit and sitting on the CB tuning out the rumble of the engines it is still serene.

 

[kehoff]

I see them as useful landmarks for night and daytime running , a good one to point out would be Cedar Point light just south of Solomons Md at the mouth of the Patuxent , it guarded the long rocky out crop for a long time , until the building was heavily damaged at some point ( from sand dredging ??) for whatever reason it was taken down , although the rocky outcrop is still there , I know of several boats that struck it and ended up high and dry including the local boat towing company , my point is unless the obstuction is gone why remove the light , https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1771

 

[Solstice1981]

I think any light house, buoy, beacon, or RACON are all helpful. Regardless if its manned or un-manned it provides one more data point to cross check your electronics and your dead reckoning to help give a fix. Ive had several errors in GPS especially near military installations. The GPS can be manipulated for National Security purposes to prevent GPS driven drones from attacking or spying.

 

[Slider70]

A few years back I was contacted by the Canadian Coast Guard (I was a representative of two commercial fishing group in British Columbia at the time). I was asked if manned light houses were still of value? The Government wanted to turn them all into automatic, non-manned lights. My response was (and still is): Light Houses are not just for boater. Coastal flyers also use the information coming from manned ones. Fog, close to or far off are important items also on their reporting. Further, at the vary time I was on the phone talking with this government official on my vessel travelling north 50% of the automated lighthouses were broken down. None of the manned ones were off line. So, my finale comment was clean up your act before killing a system that is working well.