Underwater lights
 

I want to put a some underwater lighting on-board but...there is a big range of options and prices. Power drain is an issue for me so I want to go with LED's. The Ocean LED lights look great but cost big bucks.
I inquired about one and it was $1600 each! not including installation.

I want 4...two facing aft and two facing down (possibly with strobe feature!) :cool:


Have any of you installed underwater lights on your boat?

How do you like them?

I've been following the trend but don't have any.

QUESTION (as I just had the thought): if you want red why not hang/use a pair of LED, submersible trailer lights?. Much cheaper to experiment? How much water depth would the light need to penetrate and does the color red do anything?

Red light gets absorbed the quickest. Violet the longest. (in seawater). I don't want to hang anything overboard.

Most of the colors are white, blue and green. I don't think I have seen a red light.

When the rooster tail is blue underway, it looks really cool.


LED's give a lot of light (lumens) for the amperage. Was probably going to go green and/or blue But at a grand a pop I might do it in stages over time.

Oh, so you want something pleasing to the human eye and nothing to do with attracting bait and fish?:)

:uhuh:...both actually. They do attract bait when adrift.

Apparently there is a changing view on red lights:

Many Fish Emit Red Light... : Zooillogix

Nico Michiels, a researcher at the University of Tubingen in Germany and his team have discovered 32 different species of reef fish who emit flourescent red light.

Their research has found that the fishes' skin contains guanine crystals which causes the flourescence. Michels is speculating that the glowing red colors may be used for advanced communication between and among fish species. His next task will be to prove that fish do indeed see light on the red spectrum, which appears more and more likely.

Here's a lure that flashes red:
http://www.ngcsports.com/moreinfo/ne...FVk65QoddSFBZA


(search Google for fish and red light)

This guy started making them a cpl yrs ago.
CoastalNightLights.com

Check out the THT site for reviews about them.

i looked on e-bay prices seem to be alot better

Lights are cool to look at and when in the canyons on the chunk at night draw alot of squid and small baitfish to the boat. They definitely help in that aspect. They proobably would do the same around here i.e. attract bait. Those coastal lights are very good and I know a few who have them and they have been flawless. I am just leery of having "extra" holes in the hull of my boat. Make sure you epoxy and glass them in and have wooden dowels that can be jammed into hull if it ever ruptures. Also make sure the bilge is capable of pumping out the amount of water that enter from those holes. I personally never have heard of any lights letting go but.......

don't forget the Plankton
 

it's the attracted Plankton that attracts the smallest baitfish
which attract the next size up.... and on up the food chain it goes

plankton need brighter light than just the red spectrum...

watched a short you tube video on a guy with
a mounted on the railing light (for lake stripers)
that was powered by a mini gas generator...

ran for like 3.5 hours

but this one is cool lookin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nre7qnw0Ywg

Cheap is not a word I would like to hear about a product designed to plug a hole in the bottom of my boat.

If it were me when choosing anything below the water it must be bronze thruhull (nice heavy casting) and relatively flush. Those coastal ones looked like white plastic.

I agree !

The heavy bronze thru hull ones that can be pounded with a hammer and not break cost about a grand a piece. They generally require a large hole to be drilled in the transom. The surface mounted ones usually don't require much of a hole (some can be done without any hole) and they are as cheap as 50 bucks.

My research is showing that you get what you pay for. Ocean LED is the way to go. There are a couple others too (abyss, etc) Really bright very solid and efficient but costly. I will try to add 2 by the end of the season. Lots of other more important stuff first.

Most surface mounted stuff below the water line, on trim tabs or swim platforms will generally rip off and you will see it water skiing behind the boat some night being towed by its own wire.

They are really cool though.

Sandman,

Is the bilge area easily accessible if you choose to go thru hull? Cored Hull or just glass? Like you said it looks like you get what you pay for......Now mounted to or thru an external trim tab is an idea if you don't want to cut holes....

I only have a 21'

but if I had the money I,d love to have them .

Fishpart & I fished this place two different times .. & both times it was slow going ......you would have sworn there were no fish around / until you went by this boat that had them lit ........the boats whole rear quarter was lit up & there were plenty of fish .
We did cast to them & they would head to our jigs / but one foot out of the light & into the shadows they turned around & went back ................ every , single, time :smash:

If I were installing surface mounts I would try and find a way to bring the wire through the hull above the waterline.

[QUOTETH THE =Clammer;756411]

GEE WIZ
I only have a 21' footer

but if I had the money :rotf2:
I,d love to have them .

Fishpart & I fished this place two different times .. & both times it was slow going ......you would have sworn there were no fish around / until you went by this boat that had them lit ........the boats whole rear quarter was lit up & there were plenty of fish .
We did cast to them & they would head to our jigs / but one foot out of the light & into the shadows they turned around & went back ................ every , single, time :smash:[/QUOTE]

now thats saying sumthin <-http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...nimation22.gif

As an alternative to expensive thru hull/surface mounted underwater lights when we do a canyon trip I use lights by brinkman Q-beam 12 Volt Underwater Light Underwater fishing light for bait making or attracting your favorite species! Brinkmann lights have made my bait catching experiences easy and quick for squid, mackerel and other bait needed ......... - 2catchfish.com
I cut the end off and put a plug in adapter instead of alligator clips. I installed a pair of 12v adapters in the cockpit and hang one of these over each side. At approx. $25 they throw a lot of light. I know it would be nice to have the lights below the water but these work fine for us.

most of the lighting websites say you need to be stationary.

Ocean has the option of having the wire come out the top of the light, as oppose to the back. So you could wire through transom above waterline, and still mount flush to transom below waterline.

We also discussed some here...http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...5455-leds.html

i like those flush mounts

We've got the Coastals.With the wire thru the top of the housing,we used 5200 to mount them under the swim platform,and ran the wires in through the scuppers.They work pretty great,attract fish,and we didn't drill any holes.
Oh yeah,get the long/wide/doubles.Our only regret is that more light would be good.

iv'e been looking around more and more,animal do you know what the lumens are. that seems to make a big diff in price

Most of them only need a 3/8" hole

Is Coastal the brand or model? Any links to share?

Yup,that's them.As far as lumens,if it tells you,in the link,that's as much as I'd know.

Seablaze 3 underwater led lights... www.lumiteclighting.com
This is the way to go, friend has these, it's what I would get...
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Comparison of some lights...

Yachtlights Photo Gallery :: Underwater Light Comparison


I may wait until next season. The price is coming down as more and more competitors enter the underwater light sector. I want something fairly powerful, I don't want to go thru the effort only to see a weak glow back there.

There is such a wide range of product. I think a heavy duty surface mount light would be OK for a transom mount in a protected area (under a swim platform) but I would not want it facing down. Guys screw all kinds of stuff on the transoms (transducers, tabs, etc) no reason why lights would not be ok.

customer photos
http://www.yachtlights.com/gallery/customers