{"id":10297,"date":"2025-05-27T10:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T10:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=10297"},"modified":"2025-05-27T10:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T10:02:08","slug":"the-ins-and-outs-of-boating-nav-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=10297","title":{"rendered":"The Ins and Outs of Boating Nav Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    The Ins and Outs of Boating Nav Lights<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    <!-- no image --><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><\/p>\n<div>\n<section class=\"hydra-container\">\n<div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.boatingmag.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BTG525-SEA-Nav-Lights-1024x768.jpg?resize=800%2C600&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"Boat with nav lights turned on\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BTG525-SEA-Nav-Lights-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BTG525-SEA-Nav-Lights-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BTG525-SEA-Nav-Lights-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BTG525-SEA-Nav-Lights-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BTG525-SEA-Nav-Lights.jpg 2000w\">                <\/div><figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Knowing the light colors and where they\u2019re located lets you assess which part of a boat you\u2019re looking at, as well as the direction it\u2019s headed.<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Ryan Swanson<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/section>\n<p><iframe id=\"wxuzj5efbz\" src=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.dragonforms.com\/wxuzj5efbz\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:165px;border:none;overflow:hidden;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When the shrimp would run on the full moon in wintertime down in South Florida, we\u2019d head to the inlet in my friend\u2019s old Boston Whaler Montauk, armed with headlamps and long-handled dip nets hoping to cash in. I don\u2019t recall the exact age we started doing this, but I do remember the feeling of being on the water\u00a0for the first time at night.<\/p>\n<p>Objects on the shore looked like shadows, and unlit docks suddenly appeared as we slowly made our way down the canal to the inlet. The big thing though was that other boats, which would be fully visible from miles away in broad daylight, appeared to be nothing more than moving dots of light. So, from an early age, I understood the importance of being seen and knowing what you\u2019re seeing on the water after dark. It all starts with nav lights.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nav-Light Basics<\/h2>\n<p>For most people, nav lights are not even something you think about; when the sun goes down, you just hit a switch at the helm. But it\u2019s \u00adespecially important to understand the requirements and to \u00adinterpret what you see on \u00adsomeone else\u2019s boat at night.<\/p>\n<p>Nav-light requirements are dictated both by COLREGS (\u00adInternational Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea) and, in the United States, the Inland Navigation Rules. They\u2019re slightly different depending on the size of your boat, whether it\u2019s commercial or recreational, and whether you\u2019re under power or sail. Here\u2019s what applies to most boaters who\u2019d be reading this magazine.<\/p>\n<p>Powerboats underway that\u00a0are shorter than 40 feet are required to have side lights at the bow\u2014green to starboard and red to\u00a0port\u2014as well as an all-around white light that provides 360 degrees of visibility, mounted somewhere aft of the side lights. Often you can find this mounted on a hardtop or T-top. On small boats with no hardtops, an all-around white light will typically be mounted on a removable pole that inserts into an outlet at the stern. Regardless, the all-around light must be mounted at least 39.4 inches above the side lights. The side lights need to be visible for at least 1\u00a0nautical mile, and the all-around light for at least 2\u00a0nautical miles.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing the light colors and where they\u2019re located lets you assess which part of a boat you\u2019re looking at, as well as the direction it\u2019s headed. If you see a red light followed by a white light in front of you, the other boat is \u00adcrossing in front of you in a right-to-left direction; green followed by white indicates left-to-right. Red and green and white means it\u2019s coming toward you, and solid white means it\u2019s moving ahead of you in your direction. (Unless it\u2019s a boat on the hook displaying an all-around white \u201canchor light.\u201d More on that below.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Next:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/gear\/night-vision-technology-for-boaters\/\">Night-Vision Technology for Boaters<\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Interpreting Other Nav Lights<\/h2>\n<p>You might see other lights on the water that don\u2019t match up with what you\u2019d expect from other boats, including those of commercial traffic, as well as fixed navigation aids such as lighted buoys and channel markers. Throw in lights from piers and jetties or even cars passing onshore, and it can get confusing. Here are just a few others.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stationary White Light<\/strong>: Boats at anchor in a nondesignated \u00adanchorage area are required to display a white all-around light that\u2019s visible to others for 360 \u00addegrees around the boat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yellow Light:<\/strong> A yellow light \u00adindicates that a commercial \u00advessel is towing or pushing a barge. If you see a yellow light\u2014it might even look orange\u2014on the water, steer clear. There could be a huge unlit gap between the stern light of the towing vessel and the last barge in tow. Seeing a formation of two or three vertical lights or a diamond-shaped light pattern also indicates a commercial vessel in the process of towing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blue Light:<\/strong> If you see flashing blue lights on the water, that\u2019s law enforcement. Behave.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/how-to\/ins-and-outs-of-boating-nav-lights\/\">The Ins and Outs of Boating Nav Lights<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/\">Boating Mag<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    Pete McDonald<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.boatingmag.com\/how-to\/ins-and-outs-of-boating-nav-lights\/\">Go to boatingmag<\/a><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ins and Outs of Boating Nav Lights Knowing the light colors and where they\u2019re located lets you assess which part of a boat you\u2019re looking at, as well as the direction it\u2019s headed. Ryan Swanson When the shrimp would run on the full moon in wintertime down in South Florida, we\u2019d head to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2168,126,175,4062,4500,684],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-10297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boating-safety","category-boatingmag","category-how-to","category-june-july-2025","category-navigation-lights","category-seamanship","tag-boatingmag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}