[Public-List] anchor light

[Stephen Gwyn]

I just replaced my anchor light. The answer is it depends what's
there now.  I had something that looked like this:
http://astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/~gwyn/pers/anchor_light.jpg
The bulb
was fine, but the spring loaded double contact socket had lost
it's spring. I replaced the socket with something like this:
https://www.amazon.ca/YouOKLight-Pack-15-Connector-Converter/dp/B01KXAW33I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1511284738&sr=8-3&keywords=g4+socket
(actually, I only bought one of them, from marine supply place,
and it cost about the same as 15 from Amazon)

I bought bulbs like this:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B06XKTQXXP/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There are other options, but the main thing is you want white,
not "warm" for maximum conversion of amps/hours into photons. The
bulb I bought is too bright. Anchored in a wilderness anchorage,
it lights up the surrounding trees in an aesthetically
displeasing manner.

I popped the old socket out. The new one was a loose fit, so I
used a hot glue gun (the stronger yellow stuff, not the Martha
Stewart type) to make it fit better. The bulb was also sealed to
the socket with hot glue. Then I reassembled the dome, and
plugged it in for an hour to see how hot it got. Warm, but not
too hot. The after only 2-3 trips up the mast because of
forgotten tools, I installed it. Luckily I have mast steps.

Before doing all that I did a survey of other options. Anchor
lights seem to be extremely expensive these days. And looking at
the masts that are lying down in the boat yard, they don't seem
to last very long. All the LED based lights I saw in the yard had
clouded, faded plastic lenses, even on models listed at 200$ and
up. And all would have involved drilling and tapping new holes
at the top of the mast. My conclusion was it I could get brighter,
cheaper and more solid my reusing some of the existing set up
rather than buying new.

As for solar powered lights (e.g., lawn lights), all the ones
I've seen are on the dim side at dusk, and even dimmer (or
completely out) at dawn. I used one this summer, because the
afore-mentioned socket spring problem occurred mid-cruise. In the
Pacific North-West, summer days are very long and nights short.
It worked adequately. Although it did shed too much light on the
deck. The mast head location made sure that the light was not
visible from the deck, so that I retained my night vision and
could see the stars. Wen I tried it in September, near
the equinox, it was completely out by 5 AM. In general, if I get
out bed at 3AM and look around, all the boats that had lawn
lights are now effectively invisible.

My other pet peeve is anchor lights at or near deck level. If
your light is bright, your boat will be clearly noticed, even if
it's at the top of the mast. However if it's lower it's shining
into the eyes of the incoming helmsman, blinding them.

SG