Enjoying the Lake at Night While Helping Other Boaters
For years we have all seen boaters on Lake Tulloch at night on the lake “sailing along” with their bright white docking lights using them as what they think might be headlights. The fact is that docking lights only are useful at very short distances since they do not work as headlights. The use of these lights simply blinds other boaters. It is also against the law. Boat patrols can cite boaters for this practice.
The bottomline is that the shining of bright lights reduces ambient light when you are piloting a boat making it more difficult to see other boats or obstructions.,
Since there will be many boats on the lake this Saturday night here are some helpful hints that we all need to consider.
- Discover Boating points out the practice of turning on docking lights while boating is a big problem.: “Some might think headlights are the answer. (If your boat has a built-in pair, they’re actually “docking lights” intended for close-quarters maneuvering only.) Powerful forward-looking lights or swivel-mounted or handheld spotlights can be helpful, but they can also confuse other boaters by overpowering your navigation lights or blinding approaching captains.”
- Boats.com also provides helpful hints: “Turn down the ambient light. Dim everything you can as much as you can, from the chartplotter to the courtesy lights. Any and all light on your boat reduces your ability to see beyond the bow, because your eyes automatically adjust to the amount of light available to them. When your eyes detect a level of brightness above that of the surroundings they may adjust to “mesopic” vision, used for intermediate light levels, where neither the rods nor the cones in your eyes function at peak efficiency—what we commonly call “killing your night vision”.
We encourage you to just use your docking lights when docking or loading you boat at night. On the water they don’t help and simply blind other boaters.
