Re: More Wiring for Dummies...

Ron Force (rforce@uidaho.edu)
Tue, 22 Dec 1998 13:28:07 -0800


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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DAVID_KAUTZ@HP-Sunnyvale-om5.om.hp.com wrote:
> Now a question: My friends who are cruising in their 50 footer say
> that the light that you really WANT to have is a masthead strobe. This
> light was also mentioned in _Alone Against the Atlantic_ by Gerry
> Spiess. He had one on the masthead of his 10 1/2 ft "Yankee Girl" in
> which he crossed the Atlantic. These lights are not referred to in any
> of the Sailing/Piloting books I have - Does anyone know what the
> regulations are regarding their use?

There was a long discussion of this in rec.boats.cruising earlier in the
year. It may still linger in deja.news. The consensus was that the use
of a strobe on a boat was not allowed under any regulations. Strobes
are reserved to mark hazards to navigation. Of course the question was:
"Is it better to be illegal, or dead (run down)?"; countered with "How
much good will a strobe do you when every Sunday boater has one and has
his going full time, all the time (and they will)?"

Current light standards can be found
at:http://www.uscgboating.org/fedreq/page2228.htm#navlights

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Ron Force rforce@uidaho.edu
Dean of Library Services (208) 885-6534
University of Idaho Moscow 83844-2350
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