Underwater lights

[markpierce]

Boating is about having fun. If someone wants lights, great. It turns the area behind the boat into their own personal aquarium. I have spent countless hours sitting with little kids watching fish and trying to catch them...unsuccessfully. And yes, I turned them off at night....Funny.

Ooooh, ooooh. Look at the fish. So exciting? ... Beyond small fish eating dead skin cells off my feet, the idea of fish in the water is creepy.

 

[psneeld]

So are flying bridges. And ocean voyages on vessels less than 1000 feet.

Yeah,....Mark.....you are a nice, interesting guy, but there is another view on life that a lot of others like....

 

[Fletcher500]

Ooooh, ooooh. Look at the fish. So exciting? ... Beyond small fish eating dead skin cells off my feet, the idea of fish in the water is creepy.

100 ft. From a Humpback...Creepy?

How about Free diving 20 miles off the coast in 2k ft. Deep water with 50 Lb. tuna. Swimming nearby. Also Creepy?

My guess is yes.

To each his own. It's about having fun and enjoying life. It goes quick.

 

[Lou_tribal]

I love diving, I love all sort of marine life from some sort of camo shrimp I saw to big fishes and whales, I just love to be underwater.
At the same time I won’t put underwater lights as for me it is like having someone having spotlights on in my bedroom. Would I like to get a spotlight in the eyes when I expect dark night... hell no.
But I won’t judge other wishes, blue light under water is kinda cool, just not my kind of things.

L

 

[psneeld]

No light, no fish....... turn on light, instant aquarium where all but the bottom of the food chain seems to come and enjoy the buffet.

Cant say whether the light bothers them ......they seem come anyway....and if not..... there they wind up near some other light.

 

[boomerang]

OK, so with my wife out for a Saturday morning walk I sat down & researched the lights I was *thinking* of purchasing to surprise her.
Lumitec seemed like a basic entry-level place to start. I wanted multi-colored & found their mini led was just under $130 my wholesale cost. OK not the brightest in the world but they'd be good enough for us so I'm up to $260 for a pair. Not bad. Then I read they are made of aluminum & had to be painted with special paint nor could they be within 1" of conventional copper paint. OK...seems like a bit of a PITA with more paint to buy so I looked at bronze-cased models. The Lumitec SeaBlaze with bronze housing 2-color is $275 my cost (X 2=$550...I'm getting less enamored with this project now...) & the Seablaze bronze multi...$575 each! Now I've offically thrown in the towel on that route.
The Attwoods & Perkos are absolutely too rinky-dink to be mounted in the hull of a boat that I depend on to keep me above the water so I'm leaning towards ,as some have suggested, either building some sort of a remotely mounted bracket to mount the less-expensive lights on & then fasten said bracket to my hull with a method I'm comfortable with or better yet & more than likely, buy a floating underwater light & chunk the damn thing over to watch when we're anchored.
I absolutely do not skimp on quality when it comes to upgrading important stuff but underwater lights are just fluff & glitter (IMO) & the $1000 could be better spent elsewhere!
I'll find something else equally romantic to buy my wife that's still practical...like maybe a new set of tires for her car!
Just kidding.
They still have plenty of tread left on them...

 

[Sealife]

For $20 try the one from Amazon.com. I don’t think you will be disappointed, besides it will cost more than that to build a bracket.

I am a very happy customer. Used regularly over 2 years in Caribbean, still working great

 

[hollywood8118]

I love diving, I love all sort of marine life from some sort of camo shrimp I saw to big fishes and whales, I just love to be underwater.
At the same time I won’t put underwater lights as for me it is like having someone having spotlights on in my bedroom. Would I like to get a spotlight in the eyes when I expect dark night... hell no.
But I won’t judge other wishes, blue light under water is kinda cool, just not my kind of things.

L

so does the sun never come out in your area?

light doesn't travel that far underwater so I would imagine the little fishies will just swim out of the light if it bothers them that much.

I'm in the camp the lights are cool, if you like looking at an aquarium you would like uw lights
HOLLYWOOD

 

[Lou_tribal]

so does the sun never come out in your area?

Not during the night.

L

 

[kthoennes]

Not during the night.

L

Or barely in the winter.

 

[Steve]

How about mounting the lights on a transom mount kind of like a transducer, om an outboard no thruhull

 

[hmason]

Hmm.

 

[kthoennes]

Hmm.

Yeah, that might be a little too far.

 

[AusCan]

Ooooh, ooooh. Look at the fish. So exciting? ... Beyond small fish eating dead skin cells off my feet, the idea of fish in the water is creepy.[/QUOTE


ummm ummmm.... ok.

 

[MartySchwartz]

I guess it is just me but I have never seen the sense of underwater lighting. Especially at the prices they want for those things. I have much better things to spend boat-bucks on that that. Guess my curmudgeon-ness is showing.

Marty........................

 

[psneeld]

Hey...lots of threads with people buying things that other think are dumb....

Flybridges, gensets, non powered dinks, powered dinks, windlasses, televisions, engine room cameras, etc, etc...

Too many here with such narrow scopes in boating.

Wonder if its age, attitude, IQ, or what....then they feel they must comment on it to boot.

Flipping amazing....

As Marin used to say....TF entertainment value....priceless.....

 

[TugYacht_33]

i have read about underwater lights for some time now, and really haven't given them second thought until just now.....

a previous reply mentioned having enough light to see by for getting on/off dingy and maybe other swim platform related activities...... that would be my deciding factor on UW lighting... a nice ambient glow rather then lighting up from above..... not to mention the possible benefits when the time comes to cut crab pot lines off of the prop or something like that

 

[Benthic2]

I think some people have lights to make a grand entrance into the yacht club more than to see underwater. I suspect they would like a bevy of buglers waiting for them at thier slip as well.

If you just want to see underwater, A decent dive light on a short length of rope would be cheap and easy....and you'd have a very useful light, which is never a bad thing.

 

[Seevee]

I'll take the grand entrance every time.... <g>

 

[hmason]

Not yet mentioned:

I have a friend with a sportfish and he has underwater lights. He said that when he uses them he cannot use his generator or the raw water intake gets clogged with jellyfish attracted by the lights. I didn't know that jellyfish are attracted by light.

 

[Mattie69]

I bought 7 led 700-800 lumen stainless lights from Five-Oceans for $80 each for my 46’ post sport fisher, I have had them on the boat for a year they work awesome , I use them every night I am on my boat ,brings up the fish and then seals give me an unwatered show chasing them ...I am going to buy them again for my new boat, ....fire pits are extra

 

[gaston]

I'm presently looking for blue underwater lights just cant work out the difference between $50 ones and $2500 ????
I just like the "BLING "factor the look sexy and don't care what other's think .

 

[Rhinoc]

I've got 2 blue Aqualuma UW lights on my boat. They were one of the first things I installed after purchase. Had them on the previous boat also and I love them. The marine life they attract is absolutely amazing. Spent many hours with the kids with a fishing net catching squid off the duckboard.

They use 1.2Amps between them.

One of the advantages of these are the lens assembly is mounted into the transom and the lighting component is seperate allowing them to be removed/replaced if needed (never needed to though).

Highly recommended but not cheap.

 

[boomerang]

I'm just not feeling trying to justify $1k on permanent lights when all I want to do is watch the fishies while on the bridge deck in the evening. Correction. All I want is to do something nice for my wife,who saw a set on a boat & liked them. No,I'm not in the "look at me" crowd where I would have the boat lit up while coming into a harbor (again-if we were ,we wouldn't have an old Mainship!) so we wouldn't *need* permanently mounted lights ,they would just be more convenient (except for the weekly lens scrubbing). Like I mentioned in the original post, I feel there are too many lights on the water already. I love seeing the simple colors of a boats running lights in the evening. A blazing light display, not so much (Well, maybe for the Christmas parade). I'm leaning more towards Sea Lifes solution & what he does on his boat. A 12v receptacle in the cockpit & launch a floating light.

 

[gaston]

I've got 2 blue Aqualuma UW lights on my boat. They were one of the first things I installed after purchase. Had them on the previous boat also and I love them. The marine life they attract is absolutely amazing. Spent many hours with the kids with a fishing net catching squid off the duckboard.

They use 1.2Amps between them.

One of the advantages of these are the lens assembly is mounted into the transom and the lighting component is seperate allowing them to be removed/replaced if needed (never needed to though).

Highly recommended but not cheap.

Looks great thanks for posting

 

[Simi 60]

I guess it is just me but I have never seen the sense of underwater lighting. Especially at the prices they want for those things. I have much better things to spend boat-bucks on that that. Guess my curmudgeon-ness is showing.

Marty........................

Don't have to be expensive.
I am using a super bright 12v cob light strip wrapped around a glass glass jar full of sand and long wire to 12v plug onboard.
All connections in the water given a good coating of hot melt glue.
Throw it over the side, plug it in.

Been running for 48hours now without dramas.
Total outlay about $3

Just replaced the stupidly expensive led anchor light bulb with one as well