Bright white lights on boats at night....

J

JVM225

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Has anyone else noticed an increase in the number of boats running around at night using bright white lights as sort of headlights?
Nuts!
We went to dinner by boat last night and encountered several of them blinding me on the short trip back from Babylon.
It's a trend I've noticed the last few years, but it's gotten crazy this year.
While I was hosing the boat off at my dock after getting back a center console with a big bright light bar on his T top comes in with all lights blazing.
Are these guys for real?
Granted, the moonlight was minimal last night which makes the buoys harder to pick out, but all they have to do is slow down a little and let their eyes adjust.
Another thing that might help them with visibility is turning off the lights in their cockpits. It seems like some of these guys are running light shows on their night cruises.
I guess this is the downside of the lower pricing of color changing LED's.
The kicker is that the guy with the center console had a radar dome mounted on the T top too.
The more I see stupid things like this the more I'm convinced that there has to be mandatory written testing and licensing.
 
Yep... leds have been going down in price and up in power.

Problem is there I see zero enforcement. Here in Miami past dusk there are no cops on the water. Every week end I see jet skis coming back to the the ramp 45 minutes or more after sunset.
 
Suggestion: Get the registration numbers of the boats running bright lights, if you can, and notify Harbor Patrol and/or Coast Guard to be on the lookout. Unfortunately, we're seeing increasing examples of pure lack of knowledge of boating rules and customs. Boating requires only a checkbook to get on the water. Brains seem to be optional. Another case where some new laws (licensing, education, testing) and enforcement would really help save lives and property. Just my 2 cents. Hy
 
Running under Searchlight or Docking/Other lights is a NAVRULS violation called "Embarrassing."

When we're running a safety zone for fireworks, a tournament start, etc. we hail the skipper and ask that the lights to be turned off. They usually comply. Then they probably go post on some forum that they were hassled by CG Auxiliary. I don't like to do much of this kind of stuff because as Pascal mentioned, nobody else (like CG, LEO) does. I try to be Friend not Threat.
 
USCG doesn't care about reckless boating. Unless there are damage or injury they tell you to call FWC and FWC only responds to fishing and wildlife violations

A few months ago we were anchored 200' inside a marked no wake zone, along with many other vessels, 1/2 mile from station Miami Beach. Every hour, we were buzzed by one of those high speed tour boats passing at 20kts within 100' I called sector Miami, who told me to call FWC. Nobody showed up, nobody cared. Never mind we are talking about an inspected commercial vessel driven by a licensed captain carrying 30 or 40 pax. I eventually posted pictures on the FWC FAcebook page and got a "we will look into it" comment from FWC.
 
Tough to get the numbers because you get blinded.
Nobody to report it to anyway.
I've called out to offenders in the past, but they shrug and look
at you like you are crazy.
The boats are getting bigger and faster around here while it keeps getting more crowded. More and more clueless boaters out there every year.
We're long overdue for mandatory education, testing, licensing and full time enforcement by the State Park Police and County Police. The towns are way too political to depend on for enforcement.
 
They don't enforce 5 mph, no wake. If they don't want to be bothered with that, how can we ever think they will enforce some common sense.

Billy K.
 
True! We need way more enforcement around here. If we lived in an honest region of an honest State they could charge us for mandatory testing and licensing and then use that money and whatever they collect in fines from violators to pay for enforcement personnel and equipment.
But here in the most crooked Counties in the most crooked State in the country it will never happen.
Hopefully the Feds will keep locking up the criminal politicians on Long Island and up in Albany.
 
Sorry to hear that the enforcement has deteriorated on the South Shore. I remember seeing Harbor Patrol sitting in a Whaler at the beginning of the no-wake zone when heading east from Moriches. Another time harbor patrol pulled us off a sandbar we hit as I was teaching my wife to drive the boat and she was a little too slow in turning to port as we headed back from a cruise out east. I'm sure you know the spot. Here, on Long Island Sound west town police and Coast Guard are out every weekend to help and enforce. Hy
 
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