Xenon arc is about the only thing that illuminates semi submerged objects while at speed. Maybe that’s why we were usually the only boat “on plane” after the sun went down. Nice sail boat. Is that yours? I used to own a Morgan Islander 51’ in SF Bay.
Next time your out at night, get us a couple of beamshots.
Sorry I didn’t update this till now. The boat was sold with all hardware onboard to an illumination lunatic afflicted with “the sickness”. 
Fascinating project! And an interesting end. I’m glad it all worked out and that enabled this boat to have the most killer illumination for a civilian craft. I imagine a naval destroyer would be the only thing to outshine it. 
Considering 10 years ago… I wonder what spotlight designs have been fashioned today in order to harness the brightest emitters that would put out even more lumens. What would be a good candidate LED, or is an HID system be more feasible in this application?
I’ve been lucky to enjoy several hours playing with aviation, military and marine arc lamps. On the high end and by their very nature, arc lamps remain several magnitudes more powerful and versatile, with far longer range than LED offerings. I suspect that will remain true until a different technology (possibly laser) can some day be utilized to surpass Arc in these applications. As it is, each has its pro’s and cons. A few commercial arc lamp searchlights are now augmented with LED arrays to provide wide area lighting support while employing the main arc for long range illumination. Arc lamps aren’t designed to be cycled on and off and require time to heat up and cool down, which gives LED an advantage. Feasibility all depends on your budget, space available for installation and properly rated equipment necessary to support it. A complete commercial installation to match the light I reviewed can easily exceed $40k, so it can add up quickly.