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Boat Driving Lights at Night
- Thread starter kcsteve
- Start date
Carl Guffey
New member
<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">Except when/whiledocking. No other or additionallights are legal to use while underway. Unlike asphalt which will absorb light, water will reflect light and blind other boat drivers at an extended range. Call TWRA Boating Division or look under US Navigation Laws (lighting).</font>
I got scolded by a game warden last weekend for running spot light and black lights while running down river at night. He said you can only turn spot light on every once in awhile.I have the black lights in the rubrail around boat. He said you can not run with them on because it drowns out the required running lights.
I use a rechargeable spot light at night. Not these super bright headlights you see on some boats. When I know I'm approaching a bouy I turn it on holding it close to the water and spot the bouy. Otherwise it's turned off. I have been blinded so many times by headlamps on boats and I don't want to do that to others.
upthecreek
New member
They'll just have to give me a ticket i'm not risking my life or my boat. Now if i'm passing a boat, him going north and me going south, i'll turn them off while we pass, but other than that they are on. I know one angler with a red/white bullet (not going to mention any names but his intials are C.C) and he turns his off and on and he's had a wreck the last three years.
bronzeback45
Active member
I running my lights ticket is better than getting hurt or hurting someone else. Also minimize damage to boat and possible breakdown. Check these out. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00G620ZVU/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
Has anyone actually been ticketed for using a spotlight at night? If you think about it, it seems like a dumb law. I mean, you're not going to permanently blind someone if you shine them with a spotlight but you might avoid running over them or hitting something in the water with your boat. What is the purpose of reflectors on buoys if you can't use a light?
Carl Guffey
New member
</p>
<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">No. just blind them long enough to hit something or someone else that they could have seen and avoided before they were blinded. </font></p>
I have one of the remote control bow headlights. It mounts in the bow light socket. I don't run with it on constant but it is on more than it is off. I will take a ticket if I get one. If the headlights bother you stop starring at them. I don't look directly at the head lights of on coming cars either. Learned a long time ago do that will blind you. Must take some a little long than others to learn. emoPoke
bronzeback45
Active member
These are 1260 lumens, more than what I'm using currently with 1100 lumens</p>
</p>
I run my lights often. I was on watts bar a few years ago running down the lake and something told me to turn my headlights on. As soon as I turned them on I saw an object and I made a hard right. I came to a stop and idled the boat around to see what I almost hit and it was 3 youngsters in a canoe in the middle of the lake. Since that incident I can't make myself not turn them on when running.
SpurHunter
New member
I wish I was running my spotlight last night. Was coming up river and just about ran over a guy fishing the hump outside Chester Frost with no anchor light on. As I swerved to go around him I saw the running lights were on, but the trolling motor blocked the view as I approached him. We hollered we couldn't see him, but he never turned the light on as far as I could still see him on our way to Skull Island. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID folks....some people have a death wish.
Carl Guffey
New member
</p>
<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">No, just no common sense. Or, a least bit concerned how their actions may adversley effect anyone else. Our society in a nut shell has become" <font color="#ff3300">It's all about me</font>!"</font></p>
Pointer 78
Active member
If you run a spotlight, how does someone see the your navigation lights? Seems to me headlights would drown out your navigation lights which means that boater may have difficulty telling your on coming direction, the sole purpose of red/green lights. I will say though that I don't think the lights cause accidents, speed does..