> Again which regulaton?, since what I found in the USCG booklet was that only > white lights that flash between 50 & 70 times per second are considered > distress signals. This would imply that things like bicycle blinky LED's > would be OK - The down side would be if they distract other boaters into > thinking you're in trouble, in which case it doesn't matter what the regs > say since it's not fair to your fellow boater to put them through that type > of adreneline rush. I think you mean per minute as per second would look like a continuous light. But I am not trying to be cute. The problem with any flasing light is that it can be mistakened for something else. If you had a white light the was at a greater or less a frequency than that of a strobe, whose counting the intervals? A flashing light is a flashing light. Same for red or green. Various navigational aids like buoys have flashing red or green lights. There flash may be at a much lower rate than the bike flashing lights, say every 5 seconds, but unless conditions are absolutely calm, your flashing LED light going at 1 flash a second (or whatever rate) could be obscured here and there by swells or movement of your paddle or turned head so that to an onlooker on a boat it may seem to be a buoy. So say someone is coming in through a channel, sees your red flashing light, mistakes it for a buoy, goes to the left of it and hits something. That is why no flashing lights of any color on the water to be used on any type of vessel. White flashing lights in distress strobe use are the exception. I really wish the rule weren't this way. There is no question that running a strobe or LED lights on a night outing would make your presence known. Maybe christmas tree lights strung around the entire perimeter of your boat would do the trick. :-) It just shows how extra careful you need to be at night. best, ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat May 09 1998 - 05:20:37 PDT
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