Flashing Anti Bug Anchor Light

[Midnightsun]

Where I boat there is a problem with an anchor light at night attracting bugs. It can be so bad that I do not even use my anchor light any more. The boat top will or can be covered with thousands of dead flies, moths or some type of bug after a night on the hook, really gross.

Even though I am usually anchored very close to shore and out of the way of any traffic, I would prefer to have something saying I am there. I realize this is not technically legal but definitely better than no light at all. Personally I do believe a flashing light is more visible than a steady one.

My plan is to add and adjustable flasher module to the light circuit right behind the dash at the switch wiring. The module would allow me to adjust the time on and time off of the light. Something like 5 seconds on and then 10 seconds off however would need to experiment to see what works best for visibility and no bugs. I guess i could put in a 3-way anchor light switch which allows me to choose either standard non flashing or flashing. Do not even know if this will work for not attracting bugs but assume it will be better than a light on all the time.

Here is the module I found. https://czh-labs.com/products/dc-45-30v ... her-module

[Midnightsun]

Hmmm, looks like I need to have access to both positive and negative wires to the light for this to work. Will need to splice the unit in at the access cover in the arch where I most likely can get to both wires.

[km1125]

You might want to write to them and see if those negative leads are independent or just tied together inside the box. If they're just tied together inside the box and used as the negative to run the box, then you don't need the separate negative that goes to the light, only the positive. I looked at their data sheet and there are no clues there.

[tomschauer]

something else that may help and be a lot easier is to check what the color temp of your anchor light is. If its 5k, it will really bring in the bugs. If you can find a bulb down around 2400k, much less bug attraction, and noone wondering if you are sending a morse code signal.

[Midnightsun]

Color temp won't work. This has been an issue forever on all my past boats, even those that had incandescent bulbs which are around 2700k. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Finally found an advantage to having a sailboat, light is 30'+ in the air.

[km1125]

Source of the post Color temp won't work. This has been an issue forever on all my past boats, even those that had incandescent bulbs which are around 2700k. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Finally found an advantage to having a sailboat, light is 30'+ in the air.

There's actually nothing in the rules (that I know of anyway) that prevents YOU from mounting yours at 30ft !!



and, color temp won't solve it, but it will make it better. Stick a blue light on your boat to see how bad it could really be!

[Midnightsun]

I have blue led lights in the side vents on each side. Yes it is ridiculous how it attracts bugs. Hardly ever use those.

[bud37]

My experience....even the moon shining on white fibreglass, cabin lighting etc is enough but clearly not as bad as a shining anchor light......morning dew mop sweeps clean....

[Viper]

Source of the post....morning dew mop sweeps clean....

+1. Best time to mop her down.

Han's, have you also thought of an automatic dusk to dawn photo switch? Not for the bugs but to switch the light off automatically at first daylight. I installed one on a previous boat and am thinking of doing that for this one too. I'm an early bird but not that early and I'm all about power conservation when on the hook.

[Midnightsun]

I have seen a few boats that cheat when it comes to anchor lights. They tie/tape one of those garden solar lights to the top of the VHF antenna being they are so light and small. They come on automatically and shut down when the sun rises. Probably do not last the entire night though.