Navigation Lights

It is a great idea! The sails glow! People from all around the lake can see your sails, and have told me its pretty cool looking! I would check your state laws to know what is required, but in Iowa a flashlight is all you need!

This is not true, you have to have red and green bow lights as well as a stearn light, in Iowa you also must have a flashlight.

This is not true, you have to have red and green bow lights as well as a stearn light, in Iowa you also must have a flashlight.

So you're saying when we were half in the bag in 15 kt winds in Yankton sailing at 11pm with nothing but a glow stick, we were breaking the law?

some lights don't blend and the standard lighting would better provide indication of existence and proximity of another vesselhaving provided the standard lighting, it is still up to the skipper to interpret what he is saying. That would be made more difficult by a vessel showing non-standard lighting. In the instance of a light upon a sail, it is improbable that another vessle would 1) see; 2) correctly interpret until collision in immenient. Come again. Calrification required.


We agree. Where we don't agree is that a handheld flashlight shone upon a sail is adequate to present a visual awareness to another vessel. I'm drawing upon my experience as previously noted.

In mentioning that event I was trying to point out that even standard lighting is sometimes inadequate. How much so a dim light upon a sail? Make no mistake, a flashlight, no matter how bright up close, will appear as dimly lit from a distance. If our closing speed was even as little as 10 kts, at what distance would you be comfortable that I 1)saw; 2) correctly interpreted that your vessel was away from me? The sooner the better is good, but I'm asking for a specific distance because it is my experience that a light upon a sail is capable for only a small distance. And that's me being optimistic.