Don't drive around with ur docking lights!

I am someone who does just as much night cruising as the next guy. It has always been a big thing to do with my friends and family. Right before we open up the coolers after dinner we load up, turn on the interior LEDs, get some tunes going (for the ears in the boat not on shore) and idle around to wherever we want. Personally there is nothing more aggravating than a boat that isn't lighted properly. As someone said once your eyes adjust you can see the whole lake. However, when you run your lights that are directioned in front of you on a mirrored surface all you are doing is making glare for yourself and everyone else. On top of that your lights blend in with the lights on peoples dock. Not to mention that the light radiating from your beams make your marker lights practically invisible. So when you are coming towards me I really cannot tell where you are and due to your decreased visibility I don't know if you see me.

As for larger boats, like on Deadliest Catch, they are in a whole other class in the way they navigate. Although their marker requirements are more numerous than ours they actually do more of their navigation now through the use of radar. Also, whenever these guys are navigating through the high seas that they do their light set up is actually beneficial. One can argue "Well why do they get to use lights and confuse smaller boats." Well first of all I doubt many of you run in the same water that they do. Second of all, if you run your little 22 foot boat into a 120 foot fishing barge you suck at life and probably need to take the boaters safety course as mentioned.

so are interior leds legal? in ga or sc?

Awesome. 13 year old Jordan spells, speaks, and types better than 19/29 year old Go Big! And he gets the docking lights thing.

The was just the wrong place to rant about how doing illegal stuff and getting busted sucks.

I'm going to start a thread about how messed up BUI laws are.

Hahaha. Nice.. How messed up BUI laws are.. haha

Sorry for bringing back an older thread.

murph, responding to your question, I honestly do not know. However, I will go out on a limb here and say that the legality of it depends on your judgment. If it is something that can been seen from an approaching boat at water level I am for sure it can be seen by the water patrol as well and you could be cited. I wanted to put LEDs in my vent but decided against it due to this. I even thought of wiring the external LEDs on a separate switch, but if I wasn't going to be able to run them all the time there was no reason in wasting my time. If you are lighted like mine I doubt you will run into any problems. All of my lights are located in the inside of the boat and shine towards to floor. You cannot see them unless inside the boat or standing directly above it.

We're at 85 posts about tower lights being illegal