Best light for a sailor

I just ordered and received the acebeam L18. Apparently I ordered batteries without a protection circuit. Is that a problem?

I’ll be interested to hear if you feel it still has too much spill on the water.

I don’t see where Acebeam claims the L18 has low voltage protection, but reviews state it does, and you have a battery level indicator, I wouldn’t worry about protected batteries.

i;d think a ‘sailor’ would also need something floody, pocketable, and still pretty bright

i use my FW3A about 50 times a day

i never miss having a ‘throwy light’

well i mean i have a couple, i may use them 3 times a year

it sounds like you need one, but you also need something for close up situations, which it seems would occur frequently also.

A light should fit your needs, not your occupation. There is no best light for a mechanic or a doctor or a sailor for that matter.

Depends on the vessel!

How far away do you need to see?
100m, 500m, 1000m, 2000m?

The further, the higher the cost.

The fog is a good point made above, if this is not an issue and all you need is say 250 meters a low cost carefully selected may handle it.

Forever

OP is out of luck then :cry:
Even sunlight is not forever :weary:

The use case for me is mostly spotting marks on the water which don’t have lights. I think a thrower is a great light for that. Apart from that it’s great to amaze friends with the range :-p.

For everything else than this I use my armytek wizard Pro headlamp. You need both hands while sailing and you can set it exactly to the amount of light you want. Especially the moonlight modes are great because you retain night vision. In my opinion good moonlight modes are way better than red lights.

I also just got my lt1. That’s probably great for inside the cabin although lighting is almost all ready installed there.

Most sailors I know use headlamps. You need your hands and you need licht very local.

A C8 will give you plenty of throw, also i have a Nitecore P30 with 600 meters of throw, i think there are a couple updates that throw much further.

Perhaps a solid/permanent mount is the answer?

You need a light that is waterproof, and will float.

A no-spill pencil beam is the best when hunting for channel markers at night .
Especially when you’re trying to preserve your night vision .

For my personal use I disagree. If a light drops overboard it’s probably at night. The chances that I will be able to recover it are very tiny. I think its beter to have some rope attached. That’s what I do with most of my sailing stuff anyways.

A sailor needs a fleshlight. :smiley:

PSA - Don’t Google it.

How about the Convoy L21B (SFT40): Review & Beamshots It takes the bigger 21700 battery so more run time than an 18650 and looks like a great thrower based on the review!

Wellp, if you want a thrower with less spill (and who doesn’t?), there’s the old-timey HS-802 that’s been around for ages, but they usually come in only red and green emitters. And usually weird-ass no-name “brands” like XIQUOSHINE or whatever. Pretty good out of the box, but they make hella good hosts.

If you want a more modern version, there’s the UC20 that Anekim came out with. I got the green initially, and and it throws like Hell with the green CSMwhatever LED. It’s PCG, phosphor-converted green, so it’s not as if you only see green and black, but it’s wider band and you can still make out colors, even though the dominant color is green.

They just came out with a white one which they were nice enough to send to me, and damn, that throws like Hell, too, with hardly any spill because of the same deep HS-802esque reflector.

The green is only 1 mode, on/off, but the white comes with 12 modegroups and is kind of a stripped-down bisgotti like the Cometa has. Mine defaulted to group 1, 5 levels + strobe + bike + battcheck, but I switched mine to group 5, L/M/H and then group 12 of just 100% only, which I’m keeping.

The white’s still preproduction and from what I heard should be in Amazon in a few weeks.

I usually shine on trees a few backyards over and then “down the block” (through backyards), but I decided to hit the trees on the next block (over the housetops) and damn it lit ’em up nicely! :laughing:

Nice small tight beam with the deep reflector throws oh so well. :laughing:

my review: [review] Anekim UC20 (green) hunting light with remote switch

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0928HQ9WV/

Go crazy…

Ach… as I suspected, assloads of generic ’802s.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hs-802

I use a Convoy C8 with a XP-L HI, it easily shines as far as my eyes can reasonably still recognize things on the water. More important is humidity, The Netherlands have extreme humid summer-nights so get something 5000K or warmer as these reflect the humidity in the air much less so you’ll see further into the haze. For work on deck you’ll need a headlight, for this use I like a hi-CRI light best so you’ll actually recognize what you’re seeing at a glance.

Try to keep the lights off for as long as possible thou as it takes long to get your night-vision back and you’ll never see all with a light.