Underwater Lights While Running at No Wake Speed

[RiverDave]

The side lights and underwater lights are all over when you goto other places in the country.. pretty much all of LOTO is blue on shorelines etc..

The underwater lights are enforced pretty hard in Havasu.. but not really everywhere else

 

[the510]

I have worked on the water for about 17 years now. As much as I love the blue under water lights (my boat has some too!) at night they can sometimes be a bit of a hazard then they are a safety tool. At least for the professionals who know the importance of lighting for determining direction of travel, right of way, and safe passages.

Now let me explain. In havasu they look cool and add some comfort to the recreational boater because they feel like the porch light is on. However to the commercial guys who travel the water ways as a means of transportation they can be dangerous.

A lot of people don’t realize that there are “rules of the road” on the water. For example while underway making way in the channel you are suppose to be on the right side as you would be in a vehicle. Unlike on land they can’t place traffic signals and random reflectors everywhere. So they have to have a standardized method to provide direction for boaters. They call these “ATONS” which are aids to navigation.

There are some differences in the rules between near coastal vs inland but not a whole lot.

The law enforcement coppers on the boats do not write the laws, but they have to do their job to enforce them. Sure they get discretion, but sometimes a warning doesn’t cut it.

I agree some coppers are douche canoes (AZ Game and Fish Warden Jason Dennerline being one of them) but some times so are the folks they are pulling over.

I say if your beached partying throw on the lights. If your anchored in a designated anchorage put on the anchor light and throw the underwaters on for the swimmers. If your out in the navigable waterways follow the rules bitchs!

 

[rrrr]

Me too, that’s why it irritates me when they’re drowned out by giant blue lights down the sides of the pontoons as has become so popular.

I've always thought a 3" deck gun would be a useful accessory on the lake. It could easily sink an offending watercraft at 1,000 yards.

 

[Kachina26]

I've always thought a 3" deck gun would be a useful accessory on the lake. It could easily sink an offending watercraft at 1,000 yards.

Be nice for the water cannons in the channel, but that's another dead horse.

 

[RiverDave]

I have worked on the water for about 17 years now. As much as I love the blue under water lights (my boat has some too!) at night they can sometimes be a bit of a hazard then they are a safety tool. At least for the professionals who know the importance of lighting for determining direction of travel, right of way, and safe passages.

Now let me explain. In havasu they look cool and add some comfort to the recreational boater because they feel like the porch light is on. However to the commercial guys who travel the water ways as a means of transportation they can be dangerous.

A lot of people don’t realize that there are “rules of the road” on the water. For example while underway making way in the channel you are suppose to be on the right side as you would be in a vehicle. Unlike on land they can’t place traffic signals and random reflectors everywhere. So they have to have a standardized method to provide direction for boaters. They call these “ATONS” which are aids to navigation.

There are some differences in the rules between near coastal vs inland but not a whole lot.

The law enforcement coppers on the boats do not write the laws, but they have to do their job to enforce them. Sure they get discretion, but sometimes a warning doesn’t cut it.

I agree some coppers are douche canoes (AZ Game and Fish Warden Jason Dennerline being one of them) but some times so are the folks they are pulling over.

I say if your beached partying throw on the lights. If your anchored in a designated anchorage put on the anchor light and throw the underwaters on for the swimmers. If your out in the navigable waterways follow the rules bitchs!

Damn! Little call out in the middle of that.. lol

 

[Ziggy]

I have worked on the water for about 17 years now. As much as I love the blue under water lights (my boat has some too!) at night they can sometimes be a bit of a hazard then they are a safety tool. At least for the professionals who know the importance of lighting for determining direction of travel, right of way, and safe passages.

Now let me explain. In havasu they look cool and add some comfort to the recreational boater because they feel like the porch light is on. However to the commercial guys who travel the water ways as a means of transportation they can be dangerous.

A lot of people don’t realize that there are “rules of the road” on the water. For example while underway making way in the channel you are suppose to be on the right side as you would be in a vehicle. Unlike on land they can’t place traffic signals and random reflectors everywhere. So they have to have a standardized method to provide direction for boaters. They call these “ATONS” which are aids to navigation.

There are some differences in the rules between near coastal vs inland but not a whole lot.

The law enforcement coppers on the boats do not write the laws, but they have to do their job to enforce them. Sure they get discretion, but sometimes a warning doesn’t cut it.

I agree some coppers are douche canoes (AZ Game and Fish Warden Jason Dennerline being one of them) but some times so are the folks they are pulling over.

I say if your beached partying throw on the lights. If your anchored in a designated anchorage put on the anchor light and throw the underwaters on for the swimmers. If your out in the navigable waterways follow the rules bitchs!

It sure seems since the flood of new(er) boaters since covid that the most basic rule of counterclockwise travel on a waterway or lake is a complete unknown. Even a little as I've been on the lake the past few seasons I've had WAY more boaters heading right at me on the wrong side of the lake.

 

[the510]

Damn! Little call out in the middle of that.. lol

lol yea… he was an ass.

 

[Tank]

Breaking the law.... they look so cool when on plane too. Only did it outside the marina, not in the bay where I could get nailed for them.



View attachment 493138

Yep. Right there with you.

Current boat we’ll go natural light. No color. I think the natural light looks the best actually. Travels further underwater too.