LED Bow Light

[Bene505]

I have to replace my bow light, or at least the lens anyway. So it's a good time to switch over to LED. After looking online for awhile I didn't see a single-unit (2 color) LED bow lights, only the single color versons. Anyone know a good place to get an LED bow light that has both Red and Green built-in?

For a 50 foot boat, I believe it's a 2 nm visibility requirement. That may have been the reason I couldn't find anything.

(I would also consider going with a brighter-than-required light, or 2 bow lights sticked immediately on top of eash other. I really want to be seen.)

[PBzeer]

Don't know if you have a masthead tricolor, but I pretty much only use my deck level nav lights when under power. So I didn't bother to switch to LEDs there. When I'm in open enough water to be sailing at night, I use the masthead light.

[sailingdog]

Bene—

Try this: LINK

[AboardIndigo]

Catalina Direct has introductory pricing on some new LED nav bulb replacements. You might be able to make something up at a price you like from what they have.

Catalina Direct: Bulb LED Upgrade For Red Green Navigation Light

[sck5]

I dont know. I am replacing my red/green this winter and didnt like the looks of the LED's I saw. They looked kind of pink and kind of dim to me. I dont want other boats to wonder what the hell that pink light is. I want them to KNOW they are looking at my boat. But it could be that the newer models are better - I just havent seen them yet.

[sck5]

another note - the white LED's looked fine to me so I AM using LED for the anchor light and will replace the stern light with LED later on - I am not against LED's generally but just didnt like the color on the red/greens (or should I call them "pink/lime")

[AdamLein]

Bene - could you post links for the single-color lights you found?

[Bene505]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Bene—

Try this: LINK

Thanks SD. I noticed the black ones are $70 and the white ones are $260. I got the black one. Here's the picture.



I'm looking to mount it on the vertical plate that is at the fore of my bow pulpit. If this works out, I may get another one to stack on top of this one.

I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

Regards

[artbyjody]

Note: LED navigation lights come in two different flavors and should be matched to the size of your boat. Less than 25 feet have one requirment and others an another.. Also, do a check to make sure they have been "endorsed" - or CG approved. There are quite a few products out for LED nav lights that kind of have mis-leading descriptions unless you read the fine print.

Other note:

If you are looking to replace standard bulbs with LED. Just go with white. The lens if a tri-color - will provide the color and you'll save about 20%. On top of that you'll get more power savings (LED are a power saver but white is least costly over the color LEDs power consumption by about 10%)... and you'll probably get a better resulting color.

For my Aqua Signal Tri-color I am using just white DR LED replacement LED bulbs which saved me about 40$ buying just the white ones (over the colored) and the perceived look is just fine...

BTW Dr LED has been active with the local boatshows and you can save some $$ when ordering just mentioning a boat show you went to...

[Bene505]

Originally Posted by Bene505

Thanks SD. I noticed the black ones are $70 and the white ones are $260. I got the black one. Here's the picture.



I'm looking to mount it on the vertical plate that is at the fore of my bow pulpit. If this works out, I may get another one to stack on top of this one.

I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

Regards

I've been looking at the LED lights some more and didn't find an LED (2 color) bow light that is designed for mounting on a vertical surface (bulkhead mount?). This is as far as I got, last time I did the research.

I'm still going to go with SD's (deck mount) recommendation. I'm thinking I can make a bracket that will hold it.