NIGHT TIME BOATING SAFETY

Thanks again Low_Sky for educating me on the no Red/Green Nav lights on a Non-powered watercraft at night.  I did check my YakAttack safety light/flag and its advertised as USCG approved and compliant with the 2 mile visibility requirement.

But while window shopping on AMZ for additional battery powered lights for night fishing and boating I ran across many kayakers who said they were buying Red/Green Nav lights to put on their kayaks to be legal at night. It was actually an alarming number of people that operate kayaks that are of that wrong understanding of the law....and how UNsafe having Red/Green on your boat might be with respect to other power vessels. I just couldn't add a comment to each of those guys reviews and gave up. Ha

I have a personal rescue light for pinning to my PFD that is 3.4 mile viz range and 20 lumens and 17 hour run time on a set of batteries. Very bright clear LED bulb. Then the light bulb turned on!  When I was installing the Scotty base mounts for my rod holder and fish finder mount, I used a 100 watt CFL light INSIDE my kayak hull to position the underside base plate in the exact perfect position to avoid curvatures of the hull molding and marked the position of the plate on the hull with a felt pen. Then I positioned the plate on top, drilled the perfectly positioned holes, and bingo the job was error free. No do-overs in drilling holes in your vessel.

Thinking about how bright that personal rescue light was AND how inexpensive they were ($10) and how long they run on a set of rechargeable batteries, I realized that if I hung one of those lights inside my papaya colored Hobie hull(perhaps from the lid of the rear hatch or from the aft side of the sailing mast tube) it would illuminate my entire boat hull from inside.
A few advantages:
1) Cheap to buy and cheap to operate AND waterproof.
2) An illuminated hull of the kayak gives an EXACT POSITION of your boat, whereas a single white light provides no spatial recognition of the distance the craft is from the observing/approaching vessel.
3) An illuminated hull also makes it easy to locate small items, lures, fishing gear, bait, containers, etc. that you have placed on the kayak deck and would not find easily in the dark.
4) And illuminated from beneath acts like a photo negative or slide light table that is easy on the eyes for night vision.

So I'm shopping for another couple of personal rescue LED lights just for those times I may find myself out after dark, perhaps checking shrimp pots (Whittier) or crab pots (Kodiak) at night or maybe even making a night crossing somewhere or night fishing or boating on a recreational lake like Big Lake.

I can see one negative for those kayaks that are a dark color like Hobie blue and red or other color variations as the density of color pigment may not allow light to transmit through the poly as easy as it does on the yellow kayaks. But perhaps just finding a brighter lumen output LED light would overcome that drawback and light the hull at least to some degree for added safety. Glad I bought yellow!

Austin Kayak carries this light for the best price. Its the one I have and plan to get two more.
https://www.austinkayak.com/products/14855/Ultimate-Survival-See-Me-Compact-LED-Steady-On-Rescue-Light.html

I like the internally lit boats for the novelty and fun of it, but it's important to remember that a kayak sits just a few inches above the water line. On anything but dead flat water, a glowing hull is going to be obscured most of the time. Have you ever been fishing with a buddy in 3-4' seas, catching only occasional glimpses of their head?  I have, and it's eery how easily even a brightly colored boat can disappear in the day time.

My white light is a 36" LED stern light in a flush mount socket (I think it's Atwood brand). Yup, the one you can buy at Bass Pro, Cabelas, etc for your power boat. It's wired to run off my fish finder battery. The socket mount isn't totally waterproof, but it's mounted well above the water line and I can't see it letting in any more water in a rollover than the rudder line holes or Hobie's leaky hatches. That's what the bilge pump is for...

And you are right, there is a lot of misinformation out there about night time safety for paddle craft. I found a really great video on the topic when I was researching this, I'll see if I can dig it up...

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I think it's likely that night navigating in a kayak would be in flat conditions.

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Lee
Did this even come up in the Paddlesports Advisory Committee meetings?

Have you ever been fishing with a buddy in 3-4' seas, catching only occasional glimpses of their head?  I have, and it's eery how easily even a brightly colored boat can disappear in the day time.

You mean like this?
Anyone you know? 


Yes, its the same "phenomena" you run into when trying to find your crab pot buoys in 3 foot whitecaps back in the old days of KBay crabbing. And you swear that pot must be around here somewhere. LOL But for the time in the trough the object will also end up on the top of the wave peak too for spotting by the much taller power boat.  Its a different story for sure when its kayak to kayak view. Especially if you both aren't on the same wave.  At night a papaya "flash" on the horizon should make boaters sit up straight and become more alert.

My white light is a 36" LED stern light in a flush mount socket.

My YakAttack Visipole II white light & flag mast is 52" tall and has a "floaty" foam wrapping around the base of the shaft that fits snug in my rear molded rod holder.  I hope I'm never in seas at night where that light disappears too!  Also because my flag is actually sewn like a storage bag, I'm thinking about dropping a tiny squid fishing light inside it to light up the safety orange at night too. I'm probably way OVER THINKING this whole scenario because......my expert sources tell me they never catch feeder kings at night. And I've confirmed that with halibut myself too. 

I sure tip my hat to the large numbers of sit-in paddle kayakers that frequently make the Spit to Tutka and Tutka to Spit crossings in the late evening hours. Those seas can get nasty in less time than it takes to make the 5 mile crossing. Yet I've never seen any lights on them at dusk when there are still many commercial and private boats plying the waters in that area.

While I can see the validity of a flag and light, I'm not too concerned. Actually, I can see a flag happening. Indeed, that ts probably a good idea. As for the light, I think a rescue light will do. If I'm out in the dark, I doubt it will be by my choice. Call it a lack of adventurousness...the daylight hours are enough for me.