Running at night

In the navy we steam at night, (obviously), yes we have radar, (many), flir and a designed bow, with the best lights and lookouts. I believe the % are wrong. You do it long enough and there's a 100% chance you WILL hit something. Be surprised at the clunking logs and debris that hit the bow/hull when cruising at night in inside waters or close to land, even hit floating animals in my career, whales, dolphins and cows ? Still wakes you up on a 500ft ship. I stress= running at night is not for me in my personal 19ft boat.

HM
 
My lights are usually only for emergencies, although I have run the Fraser at night many times after a long day sturgeon fishing. Not at 20 knts though. Have radar now as well, no more night fishing allowed though. Not that hard to see where we fish, lots of light from bridges and street lamps.
 
I have done quite a bit of night running over the last few years being part of this reality show. I had not done much at all before that except with the coast guard and then I was not driving.

What I have learned is keep the lights below the bow rail to limit glare off the boat, my boats being white I had a hell of a glare when I had them to high. I also figured out to spread the beams of the lights to cover more area. I had 3 lights on each of my boats, I bar light and to 8inch circles, all LED's, lit things up pretty good.

That being said, common sense is key when running at night, it's doable but be safe.
 
My opinion is your best not to run at night if you don't have to. As you get a little older you get more cautious and start to realize that no fish is worth a disaster at sea. If you are in a remote area without a lot of vessels that can respond in case of an emergency I would severely limit night runs. Sure I do it once in a while but I'm only running a couple of miles to and from where I'm fishing and I'm in the largest city in the province with plenty of assistance available. The distance you are running is also a huge factor. The longer the run, the more of a chance you will encounter that nasty dead head that you'll never spot in time in the dark.
 
done the running in the dark thing a couple times... radar 2 screens the whole 9 yards... Not comfortable doing it so...when I do it now... I just go slow and take your time ....
 
TheBigGuy said:
My opinion is your best not to run at night if you don't have to. As you get a little older you get more cautious and start to realize that no fish is worth a disaster at sea. If you are in a remote area without a lot of vessels that can respond in case of an emergency I would severely limit night runs. Sure I do it once in a while but I'm only running a couple of miles to and from where I'm fishing and I'm in the largest city in the province with plenty of assistance available. The distance you are running is also a huge factor. The longer the run, the more of a chance you will encounter that nasty dead head that you'll never spot in time in the dark.
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Bingo! Exactly, Big Guy. One should be rigged-up for night travel - just in case (**** happens, schedules/plans get changed at a moment's notice for a myriad of reasons including when things happen that you didn't plan for...) - but NOT plan on traveling at night on a regular basis. Because HM is right:
halimark said:
In the navy we steam at night, (obviously), yes we have radar, (many), flir and a designed bow, with the best lights and lookouts. I believe the % are wrong. You do it long enough and there's a 100% chance you WILL hit something. Be surprised at the clunking logs and debris that hit the bow/hull when cruising at night in inside waters or close to land, even hit floating animals in my career, whales, dolphins and cows ? Still wakes you up on a 500ft ship. I stress= running at night is not for me in my personal 19ft boat.HM
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There is a large difference in navigating a steel boat over 500t at night - and a fast skiff, though. The 500t steel boat is often going 14kts or less - and more importantly - it can take it when it hits a log. Different situation in a 19ft skiff running at 20 kts...
 
Have never run at night on the ocean. Have quite often on the lake. Always come in slow and draggin a lure.
 
If the water is dead calm and the moon is out...It's just like sunshine on a flat water day. I've left the dock when the moon was still up in darkness and put the throttles forward and ripped along at 40 mph... By the time the dawn was starting we were already at the mouth of the Big Qualicum on the run from Deep Bay with Cut Plugs over the side in late August.

Depends on what boat you're in and what the sea state is. If you're in a Big boat with a strong hull....have at it...just be prepared to pay when you strike...obviously depending where and when you do this is going to play a BIG part in it.

Similarly I have ripped out of False Creek and been at the Hump in no time in the same conditions.
 
islander55 said:
get your self a led light bar
super bright and handy
ive got a 12inch on my tinny and its like driving in the say time amazon.ca has some for good prices
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Again the light has to be the furthest thing forward on your bow if is its above the deck of the bow. In some occasions people will spray items in front of the light with flat black paint. This helps but it isn't ideal.
 
agentaqua said:
There is a large difference in navigating a steel boat over 500t at night - and a fast skiff, though. The 500t steel boat is often going 14kts or less - and more importantly - it can take it when it hits a log. Different situation in a 19ft skiff running at 20 kts...
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Right you are agentaqua, except on speed, (you know the normal cruising speed) my point was no matter what you have or use to protect yourself or make you feel safe, its not enough. Its not if but when you hit something. That's really true for night or day, but at night chances and danger increases.

There are always what ifs happening, home late, engine issues, and just dam good fishing that ends up with you running at night. Yes most have probably found themselves doing it. But that was not the sence of the post I got, I do not deliberately plan to run at night. Its a free country, decisions are individual, for me I prefer to be on the hook, eaten a good meal, and in the cuddly when its total darkness. Ready and well rested to fish at daylight.
HM
 
When we're out fishing we probably come in more often at night than before nightfall. We almost always stay on the hook or docked and are usually at a different dock or anchorage each day. It's very seldom we do more than 6 knots at night as usually it's fairly difficult to see. I have a bright lightbar with multiple lights but generally use it only when in close to shore to light up the edges of the shoreline or the dock or anchorage we are coming into. I always use radar at night and keep a close eye on it as well as the gps. I have red lights I can use in the pilothouse which are better than white lights, but usually find no light is best. the console controls and gps, sounder, radar are dimmed to the lowest backlight brightness where I can still read them. Often you can't see 2' ahead of yourself if conditions are really bad or it's foggy, etc. sometimes we cut back to 3 or 4 knots if it's really bad. The conditions would have to be perfect to be going 20 knots plus with a perfect moon. even then I usually keep to around 6 or 7 knots. will have to try some bright led bow lights on the lower bow sometime. maybe rig up something temporary just to try it out. I'm pretty comfortable out on the water at night and it's almost soothing in some ways if you just go at a nice relaxed pace.
 
FisherTim said:
Hello all,

I've got an 18' HT without radar, I cruise at 20 kts, so I figured I should get some sort of forward facing light to illuminate the water as well as my navigation lights.

From what I've seen, I think I should get 2 of these, 1 on each side of the hard top. What do you guys do for running at night?
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I guess fishertim you have gotten beaten up over a honest but touchy subject on this board. I have run at night extensively at speed for work and I prefer no lights, other that nav. The speed that you are going at does not allow you to be fully aware of things that are happening in the bigger environment like boats that are a mile away and closing fast when you are using lights.

I think their is a bigger question at play here though. Just because YOU know where you are and where you are going , you have not fulfilled your obligation as a mariner , to avoid collision, and you are making the dangerous assumption that everyone on the water is taking care of themselves.

beemer
 
A good gentlemanly discussion on an interesting subject!! Lots of differing ,interesting points of view and SOLUTIONS!! hope other subjects may continue in this vane!! Good luck with that!! LOL
 
Ya and there's one other thing that bares mentioning. There are locations where food fisheries occur where I've encountered nets with no lights on the buoys at night. That is mighty scarry when you realize there's nets out and they're not marked properly. That would have to be one of the worst case scenarios to run over a net in the dark. Sometimes even when they are well marked if there's a lot of commercial nets out its hard to tell sometimes where one ends and another begins. I won't run the gauntlet in the dark these days. I used to do it all the time when I was younger. Just not worth it to get a little jump on the fishing to me anymore.
 
i built a light set-up using a 120 watt 20 inch led light bar. it mounts on my bow pulpit and takes seconds to install/remove. i got a micro electric linear actuater off of ebay to control the trim angle of the light beam. i don't really believe in charging around in the dark but made this as more of a get home safe type of thing. the led puts out a lot of light and if you decide to go from displacement to planing attitude the beam can be trimmed for optimum visability. these types of lights are pretty obnoxious and will definatly affect the retinas of others on the water at night. i have just used in for testing so far and try to manage my time to get home before dark.
 
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