Navigation Lights

After my post about the lighthouses and the post with the Loonetta and the navigation lights, I browsed through my "boat drawer" looking for boats with correct navigation lights. I didn't find a lot. One of the better ones was Rene's beautiful Schouw with red and green but no white stern light. What we see here is Rene's latest project fitted with a top navigation light I just made. It's a single prim.

Top navigation light

For small boats this is by the book. At least while under sail. When powered you need a white forward light too. In RL top lights have a couple of disadvantages. First, it's a pain to change the bulb. Not really a problem after those LED lights came along. They last a lifetime. Secondly there's the thing about having extra weight in the mast... wires and stuff. Racers don't want that. Neither of these problems exist in SL. There is one good thing though... the windex is lit at night. It's kinda tedious sitting there in the dark with a flashlight.

From starboard

Here's a shot of Victors Dragon. It is a little difficult to make lights visible from a distance in SL, but it is visible. It's set to shiny, full bright. There's a couple of angles that needs to get right. Red and green should cover 112.5 degrees. White covers 135 degrees. Not that hard to get right.

Aft

Here's what it looks like from the stern. Not a big surprise. What I see is the red glow "spilling over". It seems this first less-than-five-minute-version isn't a hundred percent perfect. There's a littlebit of that spill over or blend when seen from the bow too. Experiments will show how to make it go away. Probably by adding a black line between those coloured sectors.

Bow

So that's it. Supersimple to make and to use. I'll put it in a free boatbuilders fittings bag one day. Probably stick it on the wall in the TYC boathouse. If you want to make your own navigation lights, this next image might come in handy. They're all over the internet.

Different nav lights

This shot doesn't cover all navigation lights. For instance there's a handfull of special lights for tows and for hovercrafts. Also there's a handfull of special cases where the Americans chose not to follow the international rules, but that's just the Americans, hehe. At least on boats they have green on the right side.

Single prim top light

UPDATE: What's not on that first poster is a sailboat under sail, and that's what we really need. Why? Smaller sailboats - under 12 meters - are allowed to have a single zone navigation light at the top of the mast. I found this second poster over on MessingAboutInBoats. What's that mean? This means that correct navigation lights will only cost one prim. So now there's no excuse for not having navigation lights.

The lighthouse post

There are so many lighthouses in this virtual world. Way too many. Not that I don't like them, but some places they're flocking. Some of them are beautiful in their own respect, some are beautiful replicas of real world lighthouses, and some are just plain ugly. This first example is from Tradewinds, Dex, where the lighthouse population has exploded lately.

Tradewinds, Dex

I quite like the Tradewinds lighthouse. Someone told me it's a replica of a real world lighthouse. I think it's in the US. It makes sense to have a lighthouse just there, because this is the first piece of land that sticks out in the ocean when you approach from south or west. I suppose there is no need for a sector light here, so it is ok to just blink red. Those other two lighthouses, they're just clutter. And the little yellow buoy there? The buoys deserve a separate post. There's no firing range there. No fishfarm and no cable or other submerged equipment.

Wicktro

South of Tradewinds, across Siracusa, there is the Wicktro lighhouse. Again, beautifully built, and again it makes sense, because it marks the north end of an island in the middle of the ocean. No need for sector lights here either. It could make sense to have sectors indicating where there's deep enough for a bulk carrier. Also, there is a no go zone to the east. Again there's a strange buoy in the picture. IALA says this is a traffic separation buoy, but there is no channel markers, so what's it doing here?

NYC

This one is really pretty. It's at NYC, Nantucket Yacht Club. It could have sectored light because there are directions from which it should not be approached. For instance you cannot sail to the north-west of this lighthouse. Note the entrance to the marina has red and green lights. Europeans should be aware that those lights are reversed in the american speaking parts of the world, and that includes the virtual marina here. Red to starboard for inbounds!!

Crows Nest

In the middle of the Blake Sea we have the famous Fastnet Rock replica: Crows Nest. No further introduction needed. I have no RL charts with that lighthouse, so I dunno if it is all white or if it has sectors. However, the Blake Sea is so shallow it makes sense to have sectors indicating heavy ship routes. 

Half Hitch

Now it gets interesting. This here is Half Hitch, and it is placed in the middle of an entrance to another ocean - or where the Blake Sea connects to another ocean. Loads of islands and loads of nogo places that are rather unlit at night. Sector lights would make so much sense here.

Barbarossa

South of Half Hitch we have Barbarossa, - also located in the connection of those same two oceans. As you can see, there's more land further south, but there's also land to the west, north-west, north-east, east, south-west, south-west to south and due south. This lighthouse should have been way bigger and with a handfull of sectors. That would have made it fun to do nightsailing in this area. Well, except that the pier in the front here is not marked in any way. Brrr. Those small buoys also need some work.

Schooner Run, side view

The last one that I've chosen for this small and in no way complete lighthouse tour is the one in Schooner Run. There are many nice lighthouses in the North Sea too. In this post here you can see the lighthouse of Mango Marina. Back to Schooner Run. It is so beautifully placed in the middle of loads of islands and small reefs. This time of year the trees are in all the colours of the fall. (It really deserves a full screen view). Sectors might make sense here too, to guide traffic from hitting hidden rocks and stuff. Here's a shot from the map to illustrate how this lighthouse is placed.

Schooner Run, top view

So what the h... is she talking about? Sector lights and all? I assume old salts will know, but perhaps a shot from a real chart will make it all make sense. This next one is from Copenhagen. I don't suppose I need to explain sector lights, do I? It is pretty obvious what they are, right? The yellow cones mark the safe waters between those major lights there. So bulk carriers and Russian missile cruisers can get in and out without running aground. 

Copenhagen, Denmark, in a parallel universe

Now, imagine being out the in the dark night. You can sail for hours having just one light ahead of you, or nothing at all. Approaching a small marina there would be like one small light to look for. Approaching a major harbour there are thousands of lights. The sky is lit as if in a disco. Small lights, big lights. Red, yellow, green all blinking differently. It's truly an amazing view, and it can be quite overwhelming to navigate. I mean, you gotta find the right yellow light to steer after. And trust your instincts cause you cannot see what's in the water until you're very close.

Svaneke, Bornholm

Here's a more simple example: Approaching Svaneke, a little harbour on the cliffy island of Bornholm. It's south of Sweden, in the Baltic. You come in from the north-east, stay in the yellow zone, until those two reds are aligned, then you turn to starboard and head for the harbour keeping the reds aligned and you are safe. If you googlemap it, you'll see those cliffs outside the harbour. This more simple but still very realistic scenario would easily fit into the virtual world.

Now, I realize the virtual world will need some sort of organisation to set all this up, and we probably - probably - don't have a harbour with the complexity of a real harbour, but still... isn't this just the perfect  job for the SL coast guard to set up the navigational aids along the virtual shores? Those buoys and lighthouses, they could need some work. Having good markers and lighthouses would certainly make it even more fun to sail the virtual seas.