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POST The Editor, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building,

110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU

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LETTERS

Most letters are edited for brevity. You can read more correspondence, online, at http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/letters

Regarding anchor lights (Feb 16), the

regulations don’t need changing, just

applying sensibly. Putting an anchor

light at the top of a 50ft mast is not

sensible. An anchor light needs to be

hung in the foretriangle, 2-4m above

deck. It ought to be a very bright LED that

illuminates the foredeck. The battery drain

is negligible. If a decklight is also left on,

more to the good.

I see no need for fl ashing lights, they

will just be confused with navigation

lights and cause more trouble than they

are worth. On small boats an additional

bright light at the boom end, as some people

show, will increase protection. The object is

to be seen. Today, the chances of being hit by

larger or commercial vessels should be slight

• it is a rare boat that doesn’t show up on a

radar screen in calm, sheltered waters. The

biggest risk is from other yachts that don’t

see fi ve watt lights 50ft up when all eyes

are peering out at pulpit level.

Terry Bailey

To his masthead

all-round white,

Mr Epton is

adding a

fl ashing

all-round white

light in the

PHOTO: JOHN EPTON foretriangle

6 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MARCH 2016

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Light the

foredeck

PHOTO: COLIN WORK/YM

For anchored or moored

boats, a bright all-round

white in the foretriangle

is more visible than a

masthead anchor light

Never mind the Colregs,

enhance my anchor light

Alastair Buchan is right (Feb 16) to suggest a

change to the Colregs. Most bays in which we

anchor are surrounded by shore lights and one

white light is usually inadequate.

So we are keeping one white light but

adding a fl ashing white light. Collapsible lights

like ours are easily bought for £12 or so. They

have solar charging; can also be charged by

a USB cable from a normal 5v

DC charger; have bright,

not so bright and fl ashing

settings. I have just

bought one and from

a full charge it fl ashed

brightly for 10 hours.

John Epton

Change the Colregs

Why anchor lights are inadequate (Feb 16) was

a brilliant, succinct and accurate assessment

of our outdated Colregs and the failure of

the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) to

change the requirement or allow changes by

us to be safe at anchor. Like the RCD directive

on brass seacocks being fi t for purpose, this

shows just how ignorant these so-called

experts really are. Skippers are responsible for

safety, so, as Alistair quite rightly points out,

you must make sure you can be seen. Use LED

deck lights plugged into a cigar lighter and

hoist part way up the rigging.

Perhaps the deskbound bureaucrats, who

quite clearly are not as bright as the candle

they quote as being visible at 30 miles, may

reconsider? Somehow I doubt it.

Paul Christie

Friends reunited

In 1984 my father sold our boat, Petrushka, a

43ft Buchanan yawl, which we built but, for

fi nancial reasons, never sailed. After handing

over the boat at Cowes, we never heard

anything about boat or buyer, a British man

living in Luxembourg.

A chance encounter online led Mr Browne to

the family boat he last saw 28 years ago

While browsing traditional yawl rig yachts

in 2012, I came across a cruising blog: http://www.

levoyagedepetrushka.blogspot.fr. It described

Petrushka’s renovation by a Belgian who had

seen her derelict in a garden in Luxembourg.

He bought the boat, renovated her and

sailed across the Atlantic and through the

Panama Canal into the Pacifi c.

The blog mentioned hauling out at a yacht

club in Valdivia, Chile. I contacted the club and

got the e-mail of the owner, Christian Sottiaux,

who was then in Tahiti. He was amazed to hear

from me, and we have since exchanged emails

in French as well as photos of the boat.

Michael Browne

PHOTO: MICHAEL BROWNE