Nav Light History

[Let'sgoflying!]

Anyone know how we came to the convention of three colored lights and their location on the corners of navigable ships, ac?
Ie why green on the right etc?

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Anyone know how we came to the convention of three colored lights and their location on the corners of navigable ships, ac?
Ie why green on the right etc?

I don't know the reason, but did you know that some countries use the red-on-the-left/green-on-the-right convention, and others use the exact OPPOSITE?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_mark

Here's a possible reason, from Gene Whitt's fine site:

http://tinyurl.com/es5zs

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Who started the right of way rules? That has some bearing on it. Red stop green go.

 

[tonycondon]

Did it come from boating or did the boating lights come from aviations? They are the same...

 

[Henning]

I don't know the reason, but did you know that some countries use the red-on-the-left/green-on-the-right convention, and others use the exact OPPOSITE?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_mark

Here's a possible reason, from Gene Whitt's fine site:

http://tinyurl.com/es5zs

What you say about the "otherside", that has to do with bouyage, not nav lights. Nav lights are are the 112.5* forward semicircles, red to port green to Stbd going aft from fwd center, and the 135* remaining around the stern white, everywhere in the world. The conventions are ICAO for aircraft and IMO Colregs 72 (which is the current version, there were others in place prior which gave the same lighting color sectors) for maritime.

What you are refering to is the difference between IALA A regions and IALA B regions.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

surely it came from boating not aviation, the former having beat the latter out by 000s of years?
Troys second link is the closest I have come across although the author freely admits to doing a lot of hypothesizing, thanks!

 

[Henning]

Did it come from boating or did the boating lights come from aviations? They are the same...

Hmmm, lets see, boats been carrying those lights since at least the 1600s. Airplanes were invented in the 1900s. BTW, where do you think stoplights came from? Red light give way, green light go, yellow light caution. (in case you were wondering, many tug and barge combos carry yellow nav lights, submarines running on the surface show a special flashing yellow. One night sailing my little Catalina 27 back to San Diego from San Clemente Island, I was just ghosting along quiet as can be when about 100 meters off my stbd quarter, a sub surfaces. The funny thing was they were as surprised to see me as I was them. They had no clue I was there. I asked a friend of mine who was aboard a Los Angeles class boat and he said to turn on the depth sounder when sailing, so that's what I do when I come into sub lanes.

 

[ScottM]

Hmmm, lets see, boats been carrying those lights since at least the 1600s. Airplanes were invented in the 1900s. BTW, where do you think stoplights came from? Red light give way, green light go, yellow light caution. (in case you were wondering, many tug and barge combos carry yellow nav lights, submarines running on the surface show a special flashing yellow. One night sailing my little Catalina 27 back to San Diego from San Clemente Island, I was just ghosting along quiet as can be when about 100 meters off my stbd quarter, a sub surfaces. The funny thing was they were as surprised to see me as I was them. They had no clue I was there. I asked a friend of mine who was aboard a Los Angeles class boat and he said to turn on the depth sounder when sailing, so that's what I do when I come into sub lanes.

Lucky they did not pop up under you like what happened in Hawaii to that boat when the sub was doing a max rate emergancy blow accent.