Use of searchlights at night

I'm not a boat-at-night guy, so, do you use your searchlight at night, not at all, only intermittent, or most all the time? If there is a good possibility of floating debris, I'd go constant, aiming at the water 30 yards ahead at a speed of 5 knots.

We have been out at night a lot, hundreds of patrols for the CG. We almost never used a search light. It would kill your night vision for a long time and then you could not see anything. After you learn how to scan and not use the center of your vision to look for objects, it is really pretty easy to see things at night. We would only use a searchlight when we were close to an object and wanted to identify it or for better vision to maneuver close to the object. Then we would have to wait for our night vision to return. What drives me crazy is people that run at night with their spotlight or docking lights on all the time. They not only ruin their night vision but everyone in the areas night vision. When you run with them on all the time, you limit your vision to a small area that is lit but you can’t see anything past that distance. Another problem is your own running lights, the steaming light on a previous boat was mounted on the front of the flybridge brow. It lit up the bow of our boat very well but all the reflected light ruined our night vision. I moved it up onto the mast and the bimini top shielded the bow area so there wasn’t any reflected light.

I don't have a built-in searchlight, but on the rare occasions I run at night I do keep a handheld one within reach just in case. However, I almost never use it for the sake of preserving night vision (especially because it'll cause glare off the decks being that it's not all the way forward). So generally if visibility is a problem or there's a risk of debris, I'll resort to slowing down even more than my normal 7 kts or less in the dark and putting a person on the bow (there's an appropriate spot to sit given calm-ish water) with the center windshield open so I can hear them from the helm.

We have a built in spotlight but it won’t traverse side to side. Had the boat 4 years and have never bothered to even try to fix it. That is how important it is to us. I do have a handheld plug in spotlight that I don’t think we have ever used. What I find works well is a 3D LED flashlight that is incredibly bright. I can point it quickly and it is powerful enough to see as far as I need to see and doesn’t need to be plugged in so I can move around and use it where I need it.

Think it is a bad idea to shine the searchlight on the deck, but instead aim it on the water when there is a concern. My searchlight rotates and can aim up and down.

The problem with the builtin spotlights is that it takes forever to pan it side to side or up and down. I can use my big flashlight and pan it almost instantly. Also I can aim it off the decks easily so it doesn’t light the decks up.

If there is a good possibility of floating debris, don't run at night unless you absolutely have to. Nights come in brightly moonlit and glassy calm to invisibly black and a high sea running. Up here in the PNW with a tremendous amount of large drift, much of it hard enough to see at noon, I wouldn't run at night unless forced. Out on an ocean passage on the sailboat, no moon, large sea and a little weather, you just run and keep your fingers crossed. No way you are going to see anything before you hit it.

Rarely in the fog I use it to pick out channel markers in a narrow channel. Otherwise it ruins my night vision. I've got years on the ocean in ships and boats and would rather have my night vision. If you had crab boat lights and can turn the ocean light for a 1/4 mile, maybe.

I prefer using radar to spot channel markers. But if needed, would use spotlight to verify their identification.

Like so many discussions...it depends.


I ran hundreds of hours at night , at over 20 knots, in narrow backwater channels with a fixed spotlight on all the time to pick out the channel markers.



To do so without the spotlight would have resulted in groundings for sure. Night vision? Behind ICW barrier islands with all kinds of lights...night vision was a joke....so the spotlight won.


Offshore with low expectancy of hitting things in the water...no...I would not use a spot as it wouldn't help much...but you aren't going to see a lot on many nights anyhow.

DDW said:

If there is a good possibility of floating debris, don't run at night unless you absolutely have to. Nights come in brightly moonlit and glassy calm to invisibly black and a high sea running. Up here in the PNW with a tremendous amount of large drift, much of it hard enough to see at noon, I wouldn't run at night unless forced. Out on an ocean passage on the sailboat, no moon, large sea and a little weather, you just run and keep your fingers crossed. No way you are going to see anything before you hit it.

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Exactly.

I have a super high power custom-built flashlight that has a very narrow bean with little scatter. While some light does illuminate the foredeck when shining it on my windlass at night, it's still tight enough to preserve my night vision. Most bright flashlights and handheld spots I've used had too much near-field scatter that causes a loss of night vision.

spotlights

Comodave,
We see boaters on inland lakes using their docking lights as navigation lights.
We (USCGAUX) on patrols tell them it is not legal but they still do it.
We explain they are not displaying the correct light configuration for their vessel but they just don't get it. This is on nights with good visibility too.
It does not take very long to lose one's night vision but a much longer time to regain it.
Bill

Have only two memories boating underway at night, both in the 1960s. Only one is relevant here. In that instance, my father took me and two high-school friends into the night on his 28.5-foot sailboat. At very dark we were heading east in San Pablo Bay. Midway, a tugboat shone a blinding, bright light and megaphoned a message whose content I can't remember. We were moving parallel about a half-mile distant. (We had only binoculars, compass and chart to navigate. No radio, searchlight, radar, depth finder, or GPS,) On conclusion, believe the tug was just curious to observe a sailing vessel at such time. We subsequently anchored west of Crockett without event.

Super powerful bright lights are used frequently by commercial fishing guys, whether fishing or just moving around. A non commercial friend in AK has a kazillion CP LED set of spots he frequently uses, especially in debris strewn water, anchorages and skinny water areas.

My night running in offshore races found many competitors turned their lights out or even reversed them! So many odd things occur when competing for a gold plated trophy.

When I moored up Eby Slough in Marysville (off the Snohomish River) I used a hand held spot light quite a number of times. Spotting known pilings led the way and kept me in the channel. The deck light was a problem but one could probably shield the deck light w their hand turning on the light w one’s hand shielding the deck light lowering until the view ahead is seen but the foredeck not. I held the spot light out the window.

Used it once.
We left dock later than expected and reached our anchor spot at night, used the light while anchoring to check we were right where we expect to be but never underway as it is not a good idea to hide your navigation light behind a powerful search light.
Moreover, underway even the instruments light become quickly annoying so even more annoying is the search light.

L

Billr2019 said:

Comodave,
We see boaters on inland lakes using their docking lights as navigation lights.
We (USCGAUX) on patrols tell them it is not legal but they still do it.
We explain they are not displaying the correct light configuration for their vessel but they just don't get it. This is on nights with good visibility too.
It does not take very long to lose one's night vision but a much longer time to regain it.
Bill

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If the lights can't be confused with navigation lights, what's the problem? Not showing navigational lights?

The problem is they are so bright that they obscure the nav lights so you can not see them.

Exactly and other boaters can't tell what this boater is doing; direction he is heading, relative motion, etc.

When I set up Volunteer for offshore passagemaking I did the fish boat thing and ran 2 big HPS flood lights pointed forward.. that is by far the best for night running short of a $ 20,000 FLIR system. Spotted all kinds of crap and lots of pot floats, logs, birds even a old really big floating tv. I will do the same thing on the next passagemaker with the exception they will be big LED's .. no more waiting for the lights to warm up would be a plus. I haven't seen a handheld with enough power to light much that wasn't reflective.
HOLLYWOOD

The old 33' wood Monk boat I had some years ago had a nice flood light mounted on the bow just below deck level so it would light the way but not blind you. I went into Smilk Bay one night just before dark after a late start and that light was a real help dodging logs going in to anchor.

In Salish Sea, it would be selfish as you would always be in an area with potentially other boats. It’s one thing to ruin your own night vision, quite another someone else’s. If you are near Seattle, the light pollution is hard to deal with already, and very easy to hit a log. I despise night running around here. My searchlight movement has been broken for over a decade and it’s still low on the priority list.

Recreational fishermen often use them out here before first light, it’s not pretty. Half of them can’t see, the other half navigating exclusively by gps, not even bothering to look through the windshield glare. You would think that boat collisions would happen, and you would be right, they do.

Out away from other vessels, or Alaska where custom is the other vessels are also using bright lights, fine with me.

Bright lights / search lights vs night vision. Both sides of the discussion have valid points. After decades and 10s of thousands of miles / hours of night running I favor preserving night vision until I'm close to shore and need to spot unlit channel makers, pilings etc. I do take the precaution of turning the search light aft and down when securing it so when I flip the switch on next time I won't blind myself or hopefully anyone else.

I find search lights nearly useless is fog, ran or snow.

Now that I'm retired I prefer not to run at night. As beautiful as it can be the risk and associated stress are higher. A quiet remote anchorage, a bottle of my favorite scotch at hand and enjoying the night sky are preferable.

I put in an IR movable camera fwd. Going north from the cut Haulover, on the ICW (north of Miami), there are a lot of unlighted nav aid plus shore light bleed and boaters who are not paying attention, the IR camera is a life saver plus the horn. Which reminds me, I need a BIGGER horn.

Comodave said:

The problem is they are so bright that they obscure the nav lights so you can not see them.

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Reminds me of cruise ships.

One of my best boating memories is when I was a kid on the Ohio River, anchored at night in our Owens cabin cruiser with my dad and brother. We’d see the tows’ searchlights in the distance sweeping the river from bank to bank—long before you could hear them. Eventually, they’d fix on us and note what and where we were. It was a great light show as they slowly made their way by us and disappeared around a bend. We were night-blinded but it didn’t matter since we were never under way at night.

The thing I absolutely can't stand is meeting some tugboat on the ICW at night, and having them shine their trillion candle power spotlight directly in my eyes. I've called a few of them on the VHF and said, "You're going to have to avoid me, I think it's going to be several minutes before I can see anything again thanks to your light."

Mine is on pilot house roof with the manual control lever right over the helm. I only flick it on briefly to ID markers, radar targets, etc. Some bleed light does get on foredeck, so it is not good for night vision. Off 99% of the time.

I too hate it when meeting a tug/barge in the narrow ICW and the a-hole leaves his search light on, aiming right at me. Usually they are responsive to the radio, but I have turned it around and hid in a creek to let them pass.

Lou_tribal said:

Used it once.
Moreover, underway even the instruments light become quickly annoying so even more annoying is the search light.

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That's a good point. I typically dim every instrument I can as dim as it goes and if I don't critically need it, it's turned off. Even my gauge lights on the panel are typically left off most of the time at night, I just flip them on to check things every few minutes. Running at low speed, things are under pretty low stress, so the chance of something going bad quickly with an engine is fairly low (and if it does, there's always the warning buzzer).