[CUCBC Captains] Lights

[Robert Nimmo]

Dear Captains,

Various crews have been boating this term with bow lights attached to the
backstay of a rigger.

This lights the boat up very clearly for anything directly in front of the
crew, which serves much of the time since the majority of times lights are
needed in the mornings are between college crews who are all going in the
same direction (by the time anyone spins at the lock, it's usually bright
enough that they're no longer needed).

However, a light on the backstay of the bow rigger (at least on a normal
stroke rig) is invisible to any traffic on the other side of the river from
you, which has led to a few issues in the last few weeks where town clubs
(who boat before lighting down) meet college crews which appear unlit until
they happen to hit the right angle to see round the bow canvas.

>From the perspective of a cox, it's much much easier to take suitable
action early to avoid getting in the way of another crew if you can see
them some distance away. This becomes even more important when it's misty,
or raining (or anything else which reduces visibility still further), so
being better lit up not only protects you from accidents, but also helps
other crews on the river position themselves to maximise free flow of
traffic.

Given all that, could I ask that crews fitting lights make sure that they
are visible from both sides of the shell? (Either by mounting on the bow
canvas/bowball, or by popping a light on both the bow and 2-seat
backstays). To protect yourselves, lights should be visible through 360
degrees, such that you can be seen from ahead, behind and even when
spinning.

Many thanks,

Robert

PS For information, since I had someone ask recently, CRA (the equivalent
to CUCBC for the Town clubs) expects Town crews in the dark to have a white
light on the bow, and white light on the stern and a red light on the stern
as well. So if you meet a weird looking Town crew out, that's why (and
should help to judge which way they're going).

PPS Obviously, College clubs don't need to follow CRA rules, so that's
purely for info.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cucbc.org/pipermail/captains_lists.cucbc.org/attachments/20160217/c850eb6c/attachment.htm>