Lighting
 

Warning- This is a bit of a beech session!

To the best of my knowledge, the Coast Guard regulations as it has to do with lighting says while underway a boat needs to have a red, green, and white light. We do ALLOT of night boating on LOTO and it is amazing all of the different lights we see.

One one hand, the pontoon drivers love to roll down the main channel with their "headlights" on. Of course these headlights blind everybody else and also hide their nav lights so it is difficult to tell what direction they are headed.

The we have all of the cool kids that adds blue transom lights. Of course blue designates the end of a dock, not that back of a boat. At night, it can be confusing at times while picking out the shoreline. Of course these same lights come in red, so it makes your brain think that you are looking at the port side of the boat, not the back. Now I see that the really, really cool people have transom lights that change colors. Pontoon drivers have even started to adorn the side of their pontoons with red/blue/multi color LED lights. Please enjoy them at the dock, but turn them off when underway.

Tonight we bumped into a new fad....twice! Aircraft style Whalen strobes are now being placed on the top of outboards. These drivers probably do not understand that that bright flash of light is not only illegal (light must be solid white), but it kills the night vision of other drivers. Private pilot training teaches you to turn off the strobe when on the ground or in the clouds because of what it can do to your (and others) night vision. When it is dark out, have somebody take a pic of you with the flash on every 2 seconds as you try to see out into the dark. Eyes just cannot react that quickly. Put away the high intensity strobes and go back to a mast white light.

Any of the boaters that I ask about these additional lights say that they do it so they can be seen. What they do not understand is that them being seen can be a danger to others. The basic red, green, and white, if properly displays will suffice.

When it comes to night vision, I wonder how many nighttime accidents could be avoided if the 2 large screen GPS units would at the very least be dimmed down to its lowest light. When I see a CC or a cat with these two big screens on high power at night, I can see why they run into shore, houses, docks, other boats, etc.

I understand that I sound like a fun hater, and maybe I am. That said, would if somebody decided to put headlights on the back of their car. How about replace the tail lights with green strobes that follow the beat of the music? How about cover the car with all different colors of LED lights (they are cheap and cool, right?). Now, would if not just one car, but 10% of them did it also, but used colors that they liked better and made them extra bright so that everybody could see them? Would if 20% did it? It would be a mess and that is what at least LOTO is becoming.

OK, I am done beeching! BTW, it was a beautiful night on LOTO!

Just got back from Table Rock and saw the same thing with the 'toon idiots...wide LED bands all down the side of the boat. My wife was like, "That looks pretty..." and I said, "Yeah, and illegal as hell!" Twilight cruising, okay, I'm cool with that but in full darkness I was finding I had after-images of these lights stuck in my eyes/head. One wonders if the owners know they shouldn't have these, and if they do is it a "F you and your rules, it's what I want/do that is important!" Much like my main pet peeve, the wakesurf boat operators who are completely uncaring of the damaging wake these boats make when cruising by a dock 50' away...oh, all whilst blaring 10,000 watts of tinny sounding "music" from their tower speakers.
I am not a fun hater, either...but when you share the water with others, you should simply THINK about your actions. These idiots with their lights know that on large lakes, the chances of them being caught are slim...I think Table Rock has maybe 5 patrol boats for 45,000 acres of lake, and they tend to focus their efforts more towards the dam area of the lake.

Tango, I just posted this statement below on another chat. Agree with you 100%

Not sure the WP even cares anymore about noise, running 70 at night, boaters driving at night with their docking lights on etc. Hell, I even saw a toon back in July with color changing Led's above the toons, that included RED & GREEN lights that alternated from side to side. Talk about confusing!

Like usual, lack of knowledge and our gov’t going after the wrong/lesser of issues.

It is allot of the guys with high $$$ boats that are adding these lights. You would sure think that they would be smart enough to know what is legal/safe vs cool (at least in their eyes).

I get it with the 'toon drivers, most of them just don't get it.

Big $$$ boat clowns. My buddy's coming into the harbor on his 34' Sea Ray last weekend on his side of the channel, oncoming 55' motor yacht, they're passing port to port. At the last second the M.Y. cuts in front of him close enough for him to make a sudden avoidance maneuver coming with just a few few feet of the dickhead. Buddy turns and follows and confronts him, M.Y. loser says he has the right of way since he has the bigger boat, mayhem ensues and buddy will have a face to face with him on the docks. No clue and not unusual in my experience. The amount of people with disregard or no clue as to maritime procedures is staggering.