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Tunnel lights


dogless

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I am with Alan W on this one. We had a simple 1930's Lucas fog light on the front of Helvetia with a 35 watt tungsten bulb in it, pointed towards the tunnel roof, and that was perfectly adequate to navigate a boat through a tunnel. I really do not understand why people need to see much further than a couple of hundred feet in a tunnel when you are progressing at something like 3MPH. As already suggested, cabin lights on also help to light up the tunnel wall.

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My headlight has barely worked since I bought Vulpes but I have a glazed front to the boat so I can illuminate the boat to be visible to oncoming boats without the headlight. I can navigate tunnels such as Shortwood and Tardebigge which are approx 600m long without any lights for my own viability but that doesn't work in Wast Hill or Netherton. For those I have use a head torch to illuminate the outline of the boat against the tunnel profile and which I turn off if I encounter another boat. I also find by half way through I don't need it.

 

I must get round to fixing the headlight though is it is a sensible one designed to illuminate the tunnel arch.

 

JP

Edited by Captain Pegg
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I do have to admit i had to go threw blisworth last time with my led surch light as i didnt have my paraffin one on board as was still on another boat was sunny outside so had my sun glasses on i thought wow this light is quite good lights up all the roof then i realised i still had my sunglasses on. Was so bright didnt know what to do as couldnt turn it off but couldnt see with my glasses off so had to go threw the tunnel with sunglasses. Ill happly just have a light that just lights up the bow any day.

I normaly run with a 2 lights if the cratch is up but if down just one.

One on the bow the other on the mast so i can see the middle of the boat as the cratch hides alot of the light.

Edited by billybobbooth
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Not a bad idea, why i have a tiny paraffin lamp that now hangs on the mast box so goves me a middle light to point in between my others. Dad has a good setup he has a high and low beam setting so can switch it on low for tunnels and on full for dark boating

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  • 8 months later...

Does anyone have a recommendation for wattage regarding modern LEDs formtunnel lights as we'd like to get one but naturally don't want to dazzle other boaters ( as  we've been at the receiving end of silly lights through Blisworth)

I've read all the posts which are informative and some hilarious...

Thanks in anticipation...

Edited by bluegreencanal
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On 11/09/2016 at 23:19, dogless said:

I have a head torch. Handy for working hands free in engine area.

 

But this was a double headed one with very white light. I'll be looking out for one. It was much better than mine which has more in common with the old tin miners candle on a head strap.

 

Rog

Some of the LED front Pushbike lights are pretty powerful& can be fitted to a head strap

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13 hours ago, Detling said:

I have a 10 watt flood light aimed up and right been good so far. But only done broad tunnels with it harecastle may another story.

I tried a 6W LED flood light (from memory it had a beam angle of 120 degrees) and it was too dark to see.  I also tried a 6W LED spot light, that does light up the roof of the tunnel, but only a small area as the beam angle is a lot tighter.

So next I shall try something like an 18W LED flood light pointed up.

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Went through crick and braunston tunnels this weekend, every boat i passed had a blinding light pointing directly at me when i approached, one numpty even had a torch and was waving it up and down the side of the boat which makes you think something is wrong.

 

 

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On 11/09/2016 at 19:18, Top cat said:

Down the coal mines the etiquette was not to look at somebody directly while addressing them to avoid dazzle.

 

Top Cat

Software engineers have carried on that tradition to this very day...

  • Greenie 1
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True that!

My light is crap and pointed up at the ceiling, i can hardly see 10 ft in front of me, but i can see the ceiling and thats good enough to keep the boat in the center.

I keep meaning to get a remote control mega bright one so i can look at the tunnel in a bit more detail, but it would be turned off when another boat is coming towards me.

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2 hours ago, Dave Payne said:

True that!

My light is crap and pointed up at the ceiling, i can hardly see 10 ft in front of me, but i can see the ceiling and thats good enough to keep the boat in the center.

I keep meaning to get a remote control mega bright one so i can look at the tunnel in a bit more detail, but it would be turned off when another boat is coming towards me.

Or pointed directly into the eyes of those who have really blinding tunnel lights :P

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2 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Or pointed directly into the eyes of those who have really blinding tunnel lights :P

Reminds me of an advanced driving course I did years ago.

If you are blinded by oncoming headlights, don't put your own main beam on in retaliation. If there's one thing worse than heading blindly towards an oncoming vehicle, it's two vehicles heading blindly towards each other. 

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2 hours ago, Dave Payne said:

True that!

My light is crap and pointed up at the ceiling, i can hardly see 10 ft in front of me, but i can see the ceiling and thats good enough to keep the boat in the center.

I keep meaning to get a remote control mega bright one so i can look at the tunnel in a bit more detail, but it would be turned off when another boat is coming towards me.

Sometimes if Diana drives through the tunnel I stand on the deck and look at the brickwork, its surprising the bits and pieces you see in there. I agree with the headlight, you dont need to see where you are going just if someone is coming the other way.

6 minutes ago, Dave Payne said:

With a strobe effect!!

Greenie

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On Tuesday, May 30, 2017 at 13:29, Dave Payne said:

True that!

My light is crap and pointed up at the ceiling, i can hardly see 10 ft in front of me, but i can see the ceiling and thats good enough to keep the boat in the center.

I keep meaning to get a remote control mega bright one so i can look at the tunnel in a bit more detail, but it would be turned off when another boat is coming towards me.

Just buy one of those big rechargeable led torches and put it on the slide pointing to the right , also useful if the headlamp bulb blows

 

T C

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Went through Wast Hill, Netherton and Dudley tunnels over the weekend with no tunnel lamp, just used the cabin lights to illuminate the walls so could see how close the boat was to the edge. Had a small head torch on the bows so approaching boats would spot us.

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The trick is to have a wide-angle light at the back of the boat.

This is with a 600w 240v floodlight, which sits on the slide and can be easily turned away from any oncoming boats.

It makes it significantly easier to be able to see the whole length of the boat and the walls on both sides, and lets you look in detail at the brickwork, repairs, etc.

This is going between the newer concrete and older brick lined section.

 

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13 hours ago, FadeToScarlet said:

The trick is to have a wide-angle light at the back of the boat.

This is with a 600w 240v floodlight, which sits on the slide and can be easily turned away from any oncoming boats.

It makes it significantly easier to be able to see the whole length of the boat and the walls on both sides, and lets you look in detail at the brickwork, repairs, etc.

This is going between the newer concrete and older brick lined section.

 

I trust you have 600W of tungsten and not LED, now that would be bright

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We went through the Harecastle tunnel 3 times (masochistic, I know) and had this tiny LED Floodlight sat on the roof of the boat lighting up the tunnel just in front of the rear hatch.  It stayed in place on all but the very lowest part - it helped a lot, but not quite enough to compensate for my lack of experience, some paint scraped off both sides of the poor old boat on those trips!

This floodlight was bought from Amazon, but I think other sources have the same thing - it really is very small with a wide beam. (and rechargeable too - great for night time excursions with the dogs)

floodlight.jpg

Edited by Ratkatcher
Typo's and added a bit about rechargeable :)
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