Navigating at night

[Naughty Cal]

If you hace them correctly fitted for river use what's the harm in using them on the canals in preference to sticking on an inapprpriate tunnel light. Anyhow, the masthead and sternlight together comprise the 'all round visible white light' which I have seen the 'anchor light' used as.

 

That depends on the size of your vessel. The stern and mast head lights are in the same unit on our boat as she is so short but on longer boats they do need them to be seperate.

 

ETA: We also have a seperate anchor light as our stern/masthead ligh is not all round visible. It is broken either side to avoid confusion as to which way the boat is travelling at night

Edited November 17, 2011 by Phylis

[Hairy-Neil]

at risk of starting a bun fight.

 

put on a proper set of colreg compliant navigation lights. that way, you'll be able to legally navigate the entire inland waterways, at whatever time you please.

 

Not so. The Wey Navigation bylaws prohibit boating after sunset....

[blodger]

That depends on the size of your vessel. The stern and mast head lights are in the same unit on our boat as she is so short but on longer boats they do need them to be seperate.

 

ETA: We also have a seperate anchor light as our stern/masthead ligh is not all round visible. It is broken either side to avoid confusion as to which way the boat is travelling at night

IIRC from my days at sea the sternlight covers the arc that the masthead does not but of course their can be a considerable distance between the two, etc

[Athy]

Not so. The Wey Navigation bylaws prohibit boating after sunset....

....as do those of the Middle Levels, though I don't think they are so specific as to "after sunset", they forbid navigation after dark.

[matty40s]

Not so. The Wey Navigation bylaws prohibit boating after sunset....

 

Thats a long Wey from Leeds.

[sebrof]

Not so. The Wey Navigation bylaws prohibit boating after sunset....

 

The post you referred to said: "Put on a proper set of colreg compliant navigation lights. That way, you'll be able to legally navigate the entire inland waterways, at whatever time you please."

 

Note that he didn't say you couldn't travel at 50 knots (in most places), or use a boat without a licence. No doubt he assumed that the readership of this forum was sufficiently intelligent to understand that fitting navigation lights doesn't absolve a boater from obeying all the other regulations.

 

Obviously he was wrong...

Edited November 17, 2011 by sebrof

[Hairy-Neil]

Thats a long Wey from Leeds.

 

Remote though the River Wey is, I believe it's still part of....

 

at risk of starting a bun fight.

 

put on a proper set of colreg compliant navigation lights. that way, you'll be able to legally navigate the entire inland waterways, at whatever time you please.

[matty40s]

The post you referred to said: "Put on a proper set of colreg compliant navigation lights. That way, you'll be able to legally navigate the entire inland waterways, at whatever time you please."

 

Note that he didn't say you couldn't travel at 50 knots (in most places), or use a boat without a licence. No doubt he assumed that the readership of this forum was sufficiently intelligent to understand that fitting navigation lights doesn't absolve a boater from obeying all the other regulations.

 

Obviously he was wrong...

 

Where does Hairy Neil mention speed or licences, he just points out that boats are not allowed to move at night on the Wey navigation,Colreg Christmas lights or not.....it's one of their by-laws.

[john6767]

Not travelled after dark that many times, a couple of occasions spring to mind though.

 

Leicester Line back to Calcutt Marina, we were held up a Watford locks this time last year, so got late and it was dark when we were about halfway between Braunston and Napton. Almost every boat we passed someone stuck their head out a scowled, so I think many people do believe it is not allowed to travel after dark. A good number of those would have been hire boats though.

 

Another occasion was in May on the BCN challenge, it fell dark on us at the top on the Cannock Extension canal, which is dead straight. Coming back down a boat (not on the challenge) was going up with his light on. You can see that that was like at 7:40 in the video, I could not see much at all. When we passed he gave be an ear full for not having my light on.

 

[sebrof]

Where does Hairy Neil mention speed or licences, he just points out that boats are not allowed to move at night on the Wey navigation,Colreg Christmas lights or not.....it's one of their by-laws.

 

Yes. The person I quoted assumed you would realise that his post did not give you carte blanche to ignore local regulations or restrictions. If he had tried to do that, his post might have taken several pages.

 

For instance:

 

Exception No 947. You can't navigate on waterways that have no water in them.

Exception No 948. You can't use a lock if BW have closed it for repairs.

Exception No 949. You can't navigate on the Thames if flood warnings are in force.

 

Etc.

[mrsmelly]

at risk of starting a bun fight.

 

put on a proper set of colreg compliant navigation lights. that way, you'll be able to legally navigate the entire inland waterways, at whatever time you please.

 

I was moored at whitley night before last. There are some very serious WORKING boats ooop ere and it seems at the moment they are getting busier which is a good thing, anyway one of the regulars went past in pitch dark at about 11pm it was Humber Princess she is a tanker approx measurements are 200 feet by 20 feet and a weight of 600 tons. If you didnt have lights it could see and it hit you quite simply it would crush you like stamping on a coke can and you would sink I dont care who built the narrowboat they are just toys in the gretaer scheme of things so I for one will not be crusing oop ere after dark. Done it many times on the narrow system, a totaly different ball game and great fun.

[Nickhlx]

I was moored at whitley night before last. There are some very serious WORKING boats ooop ere and it seems at the moment they are getting busier which is a good thing, anyway one of the regulars went past in pitch dark at about 11pm it was Humber Princess she is a tanker approx measurements are 200 feet by 20 feet and a weight of 600 tons. If you didnt have lights it could see and it hit you quite simply it would crush you like stamping on a coke can and you would sink I dont care who built the narrowboat they are just toys in the gretaer scheme of things so I for one will not be crusing oop ere after dark. Done it many times on the narrow system, a totaly different ball game and great fun.

 

Do bigger vessels have night vision equipment for the Pilots ?

 

Nick

[Guest]

I have heard suggestions of larger deposits being taken off such groups now, but that may be hearsay, I'll admit.

 

 

I'm pretty sure that is correct, I've seen it in booking conditions with certain companies.

[cereal tiller]

Thats a long Wey from Leeds.

Even further than TIPPERARY?

[Hairy-Neil]

..... one of the regulars went past in pitch dark at about 11pm

 

We were woken in the wee small hours on 'Chertsey' at Dunham on Trent a couple of weeks back, by a loaded gravel barge heading down from Besthorpe. Their boating hours are controlled by the tides, not by the hours of daylight.

[alan_fincher]

That said if you do intend to use your narrowboat at night it is wise to make it visible, but it is also wise to not blind oncoming boats with a tunnel light better suited to lighting up a football stadium

The issue, I would say, is not so much whether it is appropriate for a narrow boat to use its tunnel light to navigate after dark.

 

I would suggest more problems are caused by inappropriate choice of tunnel light for any purpose, (including passing through tunnels).

 

We are back to the old chestnut that it needs to throw a wide dispersed beam at a fairly short range, not a long narrow beam at long range.

 

Put another way, a car fog lamp generally makes a good narrow boat light, a car spot lamp does not.

 

In most cases I'd say a bad choice will cause more people distress in tunnels than at night, (simply because narrowboats use tunnels all the time, but few tend to do much true night travel, and generally pass very little else if they do).

 

Please don't get me going on the massive chromed or brass fire engine searchlights that seem to be favoured by many boaters considering they have a "top of the range boat" that needs something special at the front to set them further apart from the crowd. A well aimed air gun should be allowed on some of those! (Before I get one of my regular slagging-offs - that was meant to be "tongue-in-cheek" - I am not actually inciting people to start air gunning expensive spotlights - OK !).

[mrsmelly]

We were woken in the wee small hours on 'Chertsey' at Dunham on Trent a couple of weeks back, by a loaded gravel barge heading down from Besthorpe. Their boating hours are controlled by the tides, not by the hours of daylight.

 

Yes they sure are. They travel at any time day or night. The big shame up here over the years is the demise of the Coal barges into the rear of ferrybridge c the coal is all taken by road and rail now. We used to love being amongst all the big working stuff it was very busy 20 years ago but allas no longer

[Barry]

Bazza and me had a great time bringing Tawny Owl down the Lapworth flight in the dark, although the hire boat tied up to the bollards in one of the very short pounds was a bit of a problem

 

Richard

 

We did too

 

Proper adventure that was

 

Stepping across the bottom gates was enough to make the heart beat faster and the mouth go a bit dry.

 

We called a halt at the pub above the 4th lock cos I was wimping

 

And there was beer - and food

[RLWP]

And waitresses

 

Richard

[The Bagdad Boatman (waits)]

The note regarding the Shropshire and the Oxford was about straight and bendy canals. My barge had proper navigation lights red/port green/starboard and a white light to the rear but it had two car spotlights on the front great for night navigation but it used to freak out other boats who thought there where two boats approaching.

[Barry]

And a phenomenal number of phenomenally tall and very beautiful women customers

[Evo]

After taking all day to source, collect, and replace, our sheered cetreflex this year whilst down in Little Venice, i decided to make some progress and cast off late evening. It was the best bit of the whole 3 week ring. Through Little Venice and Camden locks at night was absolutely superb. Didn't need lights...!!

[Pretty Funked Up]

No! Front only on a narrow boat.

 

OK checked again today, theres an exclusion for narrow boats with the rear light.

Front only on a narrow boat

[KevMc]

We are back to the old chestnut that it needs to throw a wide dispersed beam at a fairly short range, not a long narrow beam at long range.

 

Put another way, a car fog lamp generally makes a good narrow boat light, a car spot lamp does not.

 

I must concur that spotlights - while they might help you see something in their arc very clearly they do make everything else that much harder to see.

 

I was coming down the GU into Fenny Stratford the other week and having been delayed needed to do the last bit (90 mins or so) in the dark (no moon to help) - the diffuse light was fine at picking out the overall line of the canal, moored boats and bridges but I had a bit of trouble seeing where the canal narrowed where a bridge no longer spanned the water, other hazards would have been hard to spot too - all in all I woudl rather stick to day/moonlight in future

[MoominPapa]

Because of bad planning, we ended up on the Northampton Washlands in the pitch black. It's rather a wide stretch of water with a big weir at one end of it and close by a floating pontoon mooring, hiding behind an island. We were trying to get to the mooring. For most of the trip the banks were out of range of the tunnel light: all I could see were sleeping swans floating around in the middle. I did get a bit tense, and I certainly wouldn't have attempted it without having been there before in the daylight.

 

MP.