Why don't boat have head lights?

It messes up your night vision making it even harder to see.
 
You have got to be freekin' joking... right?!

All these ASS CLOWNS that have wake board boats with towers are putting on a whole rack of forward and rearward facing lights... looks like a damn redneck off road truck... They should be banned from the water and the manufacturers should be sued.

You have lights... a green one... a red one... a couple little white ones...

Get radar... best "light" you can have.
 
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B-Fitting said:
I was heading back to the dock tonight in the dark and was wondering why boats don't have headlights?
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think driving on a very rainy night and how hard it is to see with your head lights and take that times 20 and you get the idea
 
I should have rephrased my statement. Coming back in from the Chesapeake Bay and through the rivers in my area is loaded with crab pots. Radar does not picks them up but my prop will. I do have a spot light put the thought was maybe headlights could be a better option.
 
The problem with forward facing lights is what it does to your fellow boater on the water. It takes about 30 minutes or so for your eyes to adjust to darkness. You can actually see fairly well after about 30 minutes... then some ass will come along with a bright light (or turn on the bridge lights) and BAM!... Your eyes are all screwed up and it takes another 30 minutes to get your night vision back.

It's a safety issue for other boaters. I think boaters who have headlights should be fined and held liable for any accidents they cause... directly or indirectly.
 
OMG NO! I was coming in one night through the narrow channel and some, to use Gary’s term so elegantly, “Ass Clown” was coming at me with his spot light on. I was completely blinded and had to just stop dead in the water. I wanted to fire my flare gun at him, but the Admiral talked me out of it.
 
While I agree with everything above, night vision is only as good as the moonlight.
Full moon and no clouds, you can read a newspaper outside. Fully overcast is another story.

My entry channel is all of 50' wide and a mile long- with limerock spoil islands lining one side and shoal water on the other. I need to hit my spotlight frequently if I can't see the markers to be sure I'm still in the channel on a moonless night. If there happens to be another boater coming the other way, so be it. Hopefully he's equipped with a spotlight as well.

Same rule applies for avoiding the gazillion stone crab trap floats at night. I've got to see them, to avoid them. Spot/Flood lights on boats are there for a reason, but only use them when necessary.
 
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I can't think of what good headlights would be. On a car they are aimed straight ahead and the road is level so they stay on the road. On a boat that will aim skyward, then down into the next wave. Headlights would be a big distraction. When a light is needed and would be useful each boat should have/has a search light that can be aimed in different directions so the user can see where he/she wants to and does not have to turn the boat.

When driving your headlights reflect off the tiny glass beads that are in the lines that are painted on the road. There are no painted lines on the water. It is harder to drive in the rain, because the water on the road prevents the glass beads from reflecting the headlight's light back. So headlights on the water are a bigger hazard than a benefit.
 
Mr Salt said:
I can't think of what good headlights would be. ..
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The only time they come in handy is when docking at night at a dock without lights. My 240SD came with them and did not think I would ever use them.
 
I was returning to dock last night in the dark and my GPS was out, and I was trying to avoid some no-wake buoys near my harbor, so I turned on the spotlight. No wind, lake was calm. Using the light actually had a negative affect to my visibility. The water does not reflect light like solid objects (duh), and light reflects off the bow and bow rail and makes it so you can't see past the bow.
 
Boat's do have a thing called "docking lights". You may have seem them on some boats - they are two "headlight" looking things that are flush mounted a few feet back from the bow, under the rubrail.

However, they are, as everyone has stated, pretty much useless as your boat is going to be bouncing around.

In addition, it is illegal to run with them on at night.
 
I posted this question on the wakeboarding thread, but no one has responded to it.

Isn't it illegal to run with lights constantly on other than running and anchor lights? :huh: I thought it was and you were supposed to merely spot with a spotlight. Quickly on (if necessary) and then off.

As stated before, usually it is not needed as your night vision is very good most of the time. (I boat in the Tennessee River and lakes around here, so not too many crab pots.)
 
It sounds top me like there are a nuimber of people who are boating when it is not prudent to be doing so. Poor planning as to when you will traverse difficult areas at night without the aid of radar and GPS is a scenario that is asking for trouble. It is not a scenario that calls for headlights that will casue another boater problems or one that prevent one from reading anothers running lights so direction of the second boat can be determined. Driving a boat is not just like driving a car inspite of what the saleman said.
 
Here's a funny confession....A couple of weeks ago, I'm motoring out of Gig Harbor lining up to clear the channel into Puget Sound (Gig harbor has a pretty short, narrow channel- especially when the tide is down). As I'm clearing the channel into Puget Sound proper, there were about 5 boats heading towards me and the same channel from about 3 different directions- I had a sudden urge to hit my turn signal to show then where I was intending to go :)
 
B-Fitting said:
I should have rephrased my statement. Coming back in from the Chesapeake Bay and through the rivers in my area is loaded with crab pots. Radar does not picks them up but my prop will. I do have a spot light put the thought was maybe headlights could be a better option.
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Can't you use your remote control cannon to blow them out of the waterF? :grin:

Lights still wouldn't help much - do the objects in the water have reflective tape or coating? Logs don't. Debri doesn't. Crab traps - maybe. You'd have to be close to the object and going slow to see an obstacle that did not have reflective markings. Also, even with the best light, if you're going fast, waves can throw a shadow over any object in the water.

In these cases, we'd have a lookout who might use a light every so often and was careful not to point it in the direction of other boaters. Just like a car, you shouldn't "out drive" your visibility.
 
A crab pots buoy is usually low in water and typically red and black making it extremely difficult to see even in the day time.
 
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