Boating Lights

[Boatman53]

Yes all manner of purpose made lights are still available and much better than the old days.
Search ‘dingy running lights’ and you can find what suits you.
Jim

 

[Gamma1214]

They used to sell boat nav lights that were basically a 2-D flashlight with a split red/green lens, probably something like that is still available.

Amazon.com

 

[yknpdlr]

@yknpdlr I don't think I'll ever do anything like that, but it sounds amazing. I have definitely found some of those hidden stumps between Flowers and Oseetah, and that was in broad daylight.

Coming off the lower dam portage, those stumps can be tricky to negotiate even in daylight hours, especially at racing speed. But during the official race or nearing the end of the Cannonball, at least it is during daylight.

During the Yukon River races we are required to carry a flashing strobe for when the large tour boat, the "Yukon Queen" might be active (it never really gets dark during the "night" on the Yukon at that time of year). Now that would be some distracting flash while paddling, but I don't think we ever actually had it on while we were racing as the big boat with its gigantic wake was never in our view during dusky light of lower latitude Yukon River night time hours before we came within the night bright night sky vicinity of the Arctic Circle.

 

[scoutergriz]

"backscatter" can be a real issue at night, that's why I like the bike lights, they're small enough to be shaded by the gunwales (they generally hang flush with or slightly below them) to block them from your view- all you really see is a glow reflecting off the water, and the white light is on the back of the stern paddler's head so no light is actually thrown forward into your eyes