With the hope of sailing and cruising more at night, there is an obvious need for proper navigation lights - bow starboard (green 112.5° display), bow port (red 112.5° display), and a stern light (135° display).  Also, when anchoring, it's important to have a proper anchor light as well.

Most larger boats - and even some Mariners - have marine batteries onboard to provide power to hard-wired navigation lights, like a tri-color at the masthead, or lights on either side of the cabin, etc.  My main objective was to stay away from an onboard battery, as it would be just another thing to worry about, keep charged, maintain, and besides - it would add weight to the boat.

My criteria for choosing navigation lights were:

    • No onboard battery - they must be battery-operated with regular alkaline batteries (Duracell, Energizer, etc.)
    • Easy to store
    • Easy and quick to attach/detach
    • Attachments must be secure - I didn't want any lights coming loose or falling in the water after bouncing around a bit!
    • Easily visible

So, with that criteria, let's see what I did.

Stern Light
After a lot of hunting, I found a set of "Emergency Navigation Lights" made by a company called Lalizas that I purchased through an eBay online company called "Boaterbits".  There are lots of things I like about them - each runs on one D-cell battery, the lights can be removed from their permanently-installable retaining clip, and the shiny plastic shields that come with them keep the lights shining in the appropriate display arc.  The shields can even be removed, too (they snap in tightly), so a white stern light can instantly turn into an all-around white light.  Nice!

I had actually planned to use all three lights, but I ended up just using the stern light. The problem was how to mount it.  I wanted to be sure it could easily be seen, and if I simply installed it on the transom, its light would be blocked by the raised outboard motor.  I needed to get it up higher, still making sure it was easy to attach/detach and be securely fastened.  After experimenting with many different ideas, I made a pole mount.  Here's how I did it:

I screwed in a Ronstan eyestrap with a 9/16" ferrule in the transom just beneath the backstay chainplate.  I figured out that by using a 1/2" dowel about three feet long and bending it slightly in this eyestrap, there is a tremendous amount of friction which doesn't permit the dowel to rotate at all.  By putting the very bottom of the dowel in the eyestrap, bending it backward and securing it to the backstay with a little bit of velcro, it is extremely secure!  I realize this sounds a little strange, but it works perfectly!  It sets up in a matter of seconds, and it's short enough so that I can keep it on one of the shelves in the cabin.

The top of the the assembly looks like this - it's just a dowel with an "L" bracket, a bit of velcro and the clip that holds on the light.  I slid the velcro underneath the "L" bracket before I tightened up the screws so that the velcro could stay there permanently without a chance of coming out.  

I'm very happy with the way this came out.  I don't plan on sailing too often at night, so I don't feel the need to make any sort of a permanent installation.  But it's nice to know, if I get caught out on Long Island Sound with the sun going down, I'll be able to quickly mount this light - and the bow light - and know that it will stay there!

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Bow Lights
My original thought, having these handy Emergency Navigation Lights, was to mount them on either side of the cabin, just forward of the portlights.  The retaining clips would be fastened there permanently, and all I would have to do is put the batteries in the lights and snap them into their clips.  Easy.  However, I realized, after taping them in place to see how they would look, that it would probably take one afternoon of sailing before a jib sheet would catch itself in the clip and rip off one of the "arms".  Besides, it looked ugly with just the clip there.  Perhaps that wasn't such a good idea after all.

The answer came in the way of a bi-color Aqua-Signal light I planned to mount on the bow pulpit.  I made sure to buy the one with the C-clamp mount, planning to bolt the rubber mount to my old horizontal anchor bracket I didn't intend to use anymore after my switch to a Bruce anchor.  So, after attaching the light to the mount, I placed it on the anchor bracket, making sure it was pointing straight ahead.  I then drilled four holes through the mount and bracket and secured the mount to the bracket with 1/2" 10/24 machine screws, washers and lock nuts.  I am now able to attach the whole thing to the front of the bow pulpit securely in the matter of about one minute.

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Anchor Light
I love this light - I just think it's the neatest thing.  It's a Lumastrobe Anchor Light designed to clip onto a forestay and hang from a halyard.  It runs on "D" batteries that will last a very, very long time.  It even has a manual on/off switch OR a photocell setting that automatically turns it on at dusk and switches it off at dawn.  How neat is that?  I simply put a small loop of line around the rolled-up jib, attached my spinnaker halyard (or a jib halyard) at the top and a small length of line on the bottom of the light.  Once I ran it up the jib a fair ways, I tied the bottom to the spinnaker eye on the front of the mast so it wouldn't swing around.  It's perfect!

Try these techniques if you don't want to be bothered with an onboard battery.  I think you'll find these to be excellent substitutes.