I’ve made some improvements to the system. The AY-UP lights worked really well, a little to well and I was getting too much glare back off the sail. So I’ve gone to 1 Intermediate light set on top of the helmet ,which lets me see about 40m ahead .It helps me avoid the wildlife sleeping on the water. The other problem with sailing at night was that I would get confused on where I was in the inlet, no reference point to aim at. The small LED lights along the bank solve this problem. The 10mm LED,s are easily seen and its just follow the dots all the way down the course, get to the end,jybe and aim for the green one up the other end. You can see them up to 2km away. 8 lights+ batteries all for under $50 just make sure the sealant that you use won’t corrode the wires


The assembled light ready to place in the hose and seal
The lights all finished and ready to go, more waterproof than a Garmin


The tape is a little crude but I didn,t want to make too much stuff in case it didn,t work

There are two lights in this photo,its just not a good camera for taking night shots without the flash. The viewing angle of these lights is quite narrow which doesn,t matter once your on the course.

I can see 'em!

Pretty impressive as I know just how far those two points are from the camera.

On the other hand how much sand was in the air when the photo was taken? As on the nights with speedsailing wind, that could cut down their visibility a wee bit.

Only one way to find out!

Good to see the night-sailing's still on your mind though - I'm still planning on putting together my own DIY LED-headlight rig, but too many other projects on my hands right now which are pulling rank over that one.

Cheers!

Cripes Waterboy, you running a super ultrabright burn your eyes out LED or something?

Most LEDs run really cool, it's only once you start going close to a watt that you need heatsinks.

A 1 watt LED is massively bright!

Neb' - yup, ~ 1W LED's is the idea; you need to be able to see a fair way down the strip (e.g. ~50m) to speedsail with a fair amount of safety, and Kato's AY-UP rig did the job nicely (which runs 1W LED's).

I'm thinking of having 2 1W LED's with medium-wide beam lenses (one angled slighty to the right, the other to the left), and another 1W LED with narrow beam pointed straight down the middle (although I may have to add a second one of these if the beam turns out to be a bit too narrow).

Cheers Craig! Getting an AY-UP rig would certainly be the easy way to do it, but the truth is I'm having an absolute ball figuring out how to do it from scratch, and by doing so, I've actually learn't a fair bit along the way; not a bad thing!