LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

[fishrdan]

I'm rebuilding an 18' Crestliner and want to add a bunch of interior lights since I do a lot of night fishing. I've seen LED rope lights that look like they would work great tucked under the gunwales of the boat,,, maybe attached to the bottom lip of the gunwale?

I'm thinking of 6' of rope lights per side, too much light, too little? Also, what is the best color of light for night use and not getting blinded, blue, red, amber?

Any pros or cons to using the LED rope lights?

 

[oops!]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

im doing somthing simmelar......red or blue for not being blinded....but red is easy on the eyes.


as long as a marine electrican says its ok.......its your boat man....you can make that sucker look like a christmas tree if you want

 

[oops!]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

actually....why not a four channel multi colored rope....that way you could static on a single color.....(make it red....or blue....or any color) when ever you want and only one rope

 

[fishrdan]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

I'm not a marine electrician,,, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night

The multi-color LED rope lights are a good suggestion if they are switchable, I'll have to look around for them.

 

[DutchMerc]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

I don't think red is a good idea, as this is the collor from your navigation-lights, and so is green. Last year i got pulled over for having red break-lights indicators on my fishing-rods at night, and the officer told me it is not allowed to have red lights on board other than your navigationlights port-side. The same goes for green. I don't know the lokal rules over there, but this is in Europe....
Any other collor will do , but the most practical is plain white i think...

 

[oops!]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

lol

i used to work in night clubs ....and alot of rope lights are 4 channel....that means each color is on a seperate channel....and with a small controller they can be made to chase or lock on any channel.....that means if red is on channel 1...they stay red....

they use the same principal in cheep christmas lights.... but this is just a little more ......um....high end

 

[oops!]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

I don't think red is a good idea, as this is the collor from your navigation-lights, and so is green. Last year i got pulled over for having red break-lights indicators on my fishing-rods at night, and the officer told me it is not allowed to have red lights on board other than your navigationlights port-side. The same goes for green. I don't know the lokal rules over there, but this is in Europe....
Any other collor will do , but the most practical is plain white i think...

i would think if its interior lighting....in direct...like under the gunwhale/cap.....it would be ok.....but....still a really good point....worth checking on

 

[Joe_the_boatman]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

Red is best for night use. While it's not the most comfortable on the eyes, it doesn't affect your night vision.

But, like DutchMerc said, red might interfere w/ navigation stuff.

 

[salty87]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

if you can get them closer to the floor you probably won't have to worry about others seeing them and they'll make the floor glow. sort of an indirect light.

 

[Five O'Clock]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

red is the best for night fishing. i've never heard of any rules/regulations for having red lights in the cockpit while used for fishing, but there may be some. check with the local harbormaster, couldn't hurt.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

I replaced my old, rusted, bulb style courtesy lights with a set of 4 LED low voltage (12 volt) lights from my local Menards. Half the cost of the LED courtesy lights they sell at boat stores.

Rope lights are an interesting idea.. kinda gives a boat a "party" atmosphere. Maybe you could get a neon Corona sign to go with 'em

 

[JoeCrow]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

Run red on the port,
green on the starboard side
Merry Christmas!

 

[Navy Jr.]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

Our new Lund 1750 Fisherman came with LED courtesy lights that are yellow. Maybe not as slick as red or green, but they really light the place up.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

if you can get them closer to the floor you probably won't have to worry about others seeing them and they'll make the floor glow. sort of an indirect light.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, attaching them to the inner edge of the gunwale so I get indirect lighting. If that's too dim then I'll attach them to the bottom edge of the gunwale.

 

[jennis9]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

i saw a guy at the ramp with blue ones tucked under the gunwhale and they looked great - looked liek the neon they put under the cars. I would stay away from white since that can attract bugs.

I am going with yellow because of the bug factor. We're redoing all of the runners in the boat this winter - we do a lot of nite-bite!

let me know what you use and how it turns out!

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

i prefer blue. led.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

While trying to figure out how many feet rope lights I would need to light up my boat I did some digging to find out how bright the LED rope lights were compared to something we are all familiar with, incandescent household light bulbs. After all, I don't want the boat to look like I'm holding up a lighter and on the flip side, don't want it to look like the surface of the sun. I don't know how accurate this info is, but here we go...

LED Rope Lights with 1" LED spacing;
? Lumens for White or Blue: 80 Lumens per foot for Cool White and Blue Only.
? Lumens for All Other Colors: 50 Lumens per foot for All Other Colors.
(White and blue LED rope lights are about 50% brighter than red, yellow and green for those of you who were wondering,,, I was)

I'll shoot for a 75W bulb since I think this will provide enough light to see in the boat.

1170 lumens for a 75W bulb / 50 lumens per foot of LED rope light = 23.4 feet of rope light needed. PERFECT! I was going to buy 4- 6.6' yellow or red rope lights which will be about 1320 lumens, brighter than a 75W light bulb I'm hoping that 2 ropes in the back and 2 in the bow will work out well.

 

[bojifan]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

Bass Pro Shops has or had kits for simple installations check their web site

 

[bojifan]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

Bass Pro Shops has or had kits for simple installations check their web site

 

[F14CRAZY]

Re: LED courtesy lights, rope lights?

I'm planning on doing the same thing...lining my cabin along with my sweet padded vinyl panel idea