Maritime Wood

Six seconds at six knots. That’s all it takes to be out of sight of a men overboard at night. Once he’s out of sight, it could take a near miracle to find him again if he has no means of making his presence known. For night sailing, lifejackets without lights are fairly useless pieces of kit. While the yacht circles blindly 100 yards away, the MOB (Men Overboard) could be slipping into unconsciousness as hypothermia takes a grip. But how effective are these emergency lights?

We decided to test a selection of the latest locator lights on the market. They come in two forms: dedicated lifejacket lights, designed especially for lifejackets, and personal survival lights, which can be kept in your pocket and double as a torch.

The advantage of the lifejacket lights is that they are always there when you need them and can be activated instantly by pull switch or automatically on contact with water: Personal survival lights can be fitted onto clothing, a lifejacket, or kept in your pocket. But they are not automatic and we felt they would be harder to switch on when you are in the water.

The fact that some of these lights can be used as torches could mean that just when your life depend it, the batteries may be dead or the lights too dim. To test the lights we took a yacht out into the Solent at night. Conditions were perfect -a fairly flat sea and gentle breeze. They would probably not be so benign in a real-life MOB rescue scenario.

We already knew that the chances of finding someone without a lifejacket light are remote, but we were surprised to discover that even with a lifejacket light, an MOB has only a fifty percent chance of being seen.

Type of Lenses.
The lights had a variety of lenses and both the clear and opaque lenses gave good results. We were very interested in how much the light would be brightened by the light intensifying lenses, which use different thickness and angles of glass, similar to a lighthouse lens. We were shocked to discover that while the light was intense when viewed straight on, the arc of light was very dim when viewed from the side. In a rough sea, where the angle of the light is constantly changing, this will give a bright flashing effect which may prove more visible. In flat water, with a motionless MOB, such a light will be easier to miss unless it is pointing at the searchers.