Everything to Know About Navigation Lights

To avoid the collision at the sea a form of non-verbal communication is made by the ship to the nearby vessels in order to help in indicating the ship’s status, position, course’s direction etc. For all these offshore navigation lights are used to navigate a vessel in heavy shipping traffic areas, sailing out at the sea, planning at a harbor, or near the coastal areas. 

Signal lights and ship navigation lights are located in those locations that make them easier to notice everything even from the long distance. Such areas are quite dangerous to assess especially when the ships are at the open seas. 

What Are The Three Main Locations For Offshore Navigation Lights?

These are listed down below:

·         Location 1- Fore Mast

·         Location 2- Main Mast

·         Location 3- Aft signal light station

What Process Is Carried Out To Maintain Navigation Lights?

Safety measures are adopted before attempting any sort of maintenance work on navigation lights-

·         A work permit is prepared beforehand

·         Inform the officer on duty after putting the lockout tag

·         While the ship is on port complete the routine maintenance

·         It is advised to take the working aloft permit before climbing up the mast

·         Then the radars are switched off and fuses are taken out.

·         The Power supply of the nearby ship whistle is disabled

·         Other communication devices such as antennas are switched off because it generates harmful radiations.

·          The checking of the wind flow meter is done for direction and wind speed. It is advised to climb on the mast in case the wind is heavy.

·         Checking for the pitching and rolling of the ship is done. In case it’s too much it is advised to avoid climbing on the mast.

How Navigation Lights Help Other Boaters?

With the use of navigation lights, other boaters sailing on sailing can determine the proper give-way vessel in case encountering another boater at night. Basically, these lights should be displayed from sunset to sunrise and also during the low visibility period of time for instance during fog on the sky.

What Are The Types Of Offshore Navigation Lights?

There are four common types of navigation lights such as:

·         Sidelight

·         Stern light

·         Masthead light

·         All-round white light

Bottom-line

It is important that officers-in-charge make sure to perform routine maintenance checks on these offshore navigation lights. At CR, control systems Inc. we specialize in designing and manufacturing lighting equipment for marine aids to navigation. To learn more, visit our official website.