Strobe lights for night-time visibility? Not so much....

[rbgarr]

http://www.setsail.com/s_logs/dashew/dashew433.html

[Ian McColgin]

Good point. There's a reason that the strobe is not an approved signal.

[Scott Rosen]

I think they should be prohibited for maritime use.

I've seen a few boats with strobes, and it's impossible to know what it means when you see one.

[Hwyl]

Dashew is correct that they're difficult to figure out range on. I do think they are easy to spot. Not only my opinion, but I was told that by a rescue helicopter pilot. So Dashew is condemning a very useful safety device with the broad brush of his self promotion

[Tylerdurden]

Strobes have their place on board and I have a portable for rescue type stuff. Best thing to ever happen to an airplane but on boats I can see the problem. From the air they are easy to zero in on so if I had and A/C looking for me I would turn it on. If you want to be found day or night I would have one.

[andrewe]

From the report I assume the salmon troller had no other lights, so was breaking the rules anyway. At 150ft one could not miss nav lights, if turned on.
Some years ago, a yacht doing a transat, spotted at night a strobe. They altered course to investigate, assuming an emergency, standing by until dawn they saw a french yacht with no apparent problems. Hailing them, some sleepy people came on deck. They had decided to all get some sleep, pulled the sails down and turned on the strobe. The others were not amused.
Andrew