I just have a question for anyone who knows about the actual anchor light laws in nsw.
On the rms website it states:

"Sailing vessels seven metres to 20 metres Shall exhibit one of the following

:A combined lantern, that is at or near the top of the mast and incorporates sidelights and stern light
Separate sidelights and stern light."

"Power and sailing vessels at anchorVessels less than 50 metres in length at anchor shall exhibit an all round white light, placed where it may be well seen."

a few days ago i got 2 visits from the boat officer. the first visit was to tell me there was a courtesy mooring available nearby. No doubt he is crossing off the days im at anchor to then tell me how many days i have left this year!
The second visit was on dusk at longbeach. I had my anchor lights on and was inside cooking up spag boll with the music up.
I could see the water bubbling outside and realised that he was here again.
I came outside for him to tell me that i had the incorrect anchor lights and that it needs to be on the top of the mast.
What i have is an all around light on the stern which doubles as my nav stern light(i cover the front half when going at night)
Its seriously bright(rated at least 2nm) and sits over 1m above the forward nav lights just above the companion way hatch. Its about 1.8 m from the waterline. It is on the stern.
He has told me it MUST be on the top of the mast. Basically saying i can no longer come out and anchor with my current config. Keeping in mind i had no issues in QLD and have visits. Ive checked the rms website and its a little confusing. "where it can best be seen" is what it says. Yes the top of the mast might be true in this case. But i swear you can see my stern/anchor light from miles away. It lights up the entire white cockpit.
As i have just spent a fortune hauling out in JB , im certainly in no hurry to do it again - yet the situation having a mooring in the creek means that you have to spend a night out to get back in to the creek , or anchor/moor off the creek and wait for water.
The grey area for me is , is this really a legal requirement because there is nothing definitive in writing on the rms website that says it MUST be on the top of the mast. My boat is old. It didnt come with mast lights. just like an old landrover didnt come with seatbelts - yet is legal.
Im all about safety and have adhered to the many demands that come form this boating officer, but im feeling like this is harrassment.
In my case over easter, alone enjoying some solitude and im being visited by the BO for any reason it seems every time im out there. I know it isnt personal as he is just a officious RMS officer, but its getting annoying.
I really just want to be left alone. If my anchor light isnt legally sufficient then i guess i have to remedy this, but if it is(which i believe it is) then id really appreciate being left alone. My reasons for not having the light on the mast is i just dont want wiring going through the mast and holes in the roof of the cabin. a remote light would be something im very interested in if it exists.
Essentially we are rms customers. we pay them alot of money to have boats, cars, motorbikes, yet they are able to fine us/change regs and provide us with a pretty substandard service in return.
Does anyone know the actual law regarding anchor lights?

You need to have that written information on hand to clearly show the officer that he is wrong.
Maybe ask him to take you for a ride in his squad boat so that he can show you how the light is hard to see. If it feels like harassment tell him so and that you are thinking about puting in a formal complaint.

You need to have that written information on hand to clearly show the officer that he is wrong.
Maybe ask him to take you for a ride in his squad boat so that he can show you how the light is hard to see. If it feels like harassment tell him so and that you are thinking about puting in a formal complaint.

Sorry Stray
Telling the BO that he is wrong and threatening to issue a formal complaint are the worst things you can do in this situation.
Try to find a compromise that will satisfy his requirements with the least cost and hassle to yourself.

You could get a portable anchor light and haul it to near the top of the mast with the foresail halyard and ask if that is acceptable.
www.whitworths.com.au/portable-led-stern-anchor-light-with-suction-screw-mounts

He will see you are making an effort and maybe cut you some slack.

If you hassle him, the next boat that comes in will pay for your behavior.

Gary

Agree with Gary, rig something temp up then get a proper light installed. If it's the light just above the outboard in one of your photos I can see his concern. It really needs to have unobstructed 360 degree visibility.

So an all round white light with a 2nm range, which as basically at eye level to anyone coming into the anchorage and also lights up the whole cockpit, isnt an "an all round white light placed where it may be well seen"?

Steve, From my Small Ships manual from 1991[edited]

Rule 30 - Anchored Vessels
(a) A vessel at anchor shall exhibit where it can best be seen: an all-round white light
(b) A vessel of less then 50 metres in length may exhibit an all round light where it can be best seen.

ANNEX 1 Positioning and Technical Details of Lights and Shapes.
4. (b) ,except anchor lights prescribed in rule 30, which need not be placed at an impracticable height above the hull.

Now what has to be taken into account is, has the NSW govt made any rules which over ride the International rules?

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stray said..
So an all round white light with a 2nm range, which as basically at eye level to anyone coming into the anchorage and also lights up the whole cockpit, isnt an "an all round white light placed where it may be well seen"?

Technically it is isn't it!
I agree with everyone commented thus far and appreciate all replies. Thank you.
I resepct the local bo however I'd appreciate it if he used some discretion as to his frequent visits which are becoming harrasement in nature. By all means come for a chat etc but coming up for the sake of throwing authority around isn't respectful.

Start logging his visits in your log book Steve and make sure he see's you doing it.

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nswsailor said..
Start logging his visits in your log book Steve and make sure he see's you doing it.

He's also doing the same.

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nswsailor said..
Start logging his visits in your log book Steve and make sure he see's you doing it.

In one of these situations where compromise has failed, I find asking the person how they spell their surname, and then taking your time writing it down in front of them can change their behaviour.
He may have a history of complaints.

In the past I found having a phone on video record was very helpful. In the case of my incidents (defending a disabled pensioner) the Police were very happy see the recordings of a person I was caring for being harassed because it removed doubt for them, and the recordings were later accepted in court where I successfully got an AVPO to protect my disabled pensioner.

Those boating officers can be obtuse. Years ago I was crossing from East to West the small bay in Sydney where Circular Quay is and the ferry wharves. I was travelling from the Opera House to the bottom of the Harbour Bridge on the South side. A very short trip. We waited until no ferries then set going across. A maritime boat officer immediately pulled along side and rudely and aggressively told me I was on the wrong side of the channel. Like duh. He ordered me to cross the channel to the north side which DID cause us to dodge multiple ferries and traffic, then travel west until we were under the bridge then cross the channel again southwards this time, dodging yet again multiply ferries and traffic to get to the south end of the Harbour bridge where we wanted to go. You are not alone Steve!

My masthead anchor light stopped working a while ago , I have a replacement and next time I'm up the mast I will fit it. In the meantime I have been using an led strip wrapped around the mast just above the boom . Did not have any problems but I was in Queensland .just thought it might help you out ,again showing your in the process of "getting legal"

You can also use a hurricane oil lantern that you slide up the backstay with a halyard. It will last the night. Thats what they used to do in the old days and it works well

Yeah I though the all around visible white light was the key requirement. I would argue that coming into an anchorage in dark stormy conditions you are probably less likely to see a masthead light, particularly if there are lights in the background.
I have a very bright solar LED mounted above the cockpit, you can see it here top right. High enough to be above the boom and all the fittings that might hide it. No dramas yet but be interested to hear if others have been told off for similar set ups.
Also have a very bright storm lantern I can hang from the boom or hoist as a back up.

Suffering from "control aversion" myself, especially if the subject is a farcicle, to keep that creep away might be wise to get half a dozen torches up the mast on a halyard and when it is creeping back to hassle you just ask him which one is the subject of his objection and turn them off accordingly.

The law states, in theory, a vessel at anchor, over 7 meters, during daylight hours, must display a black colored round sign over 10" in diameter ahead of the mast. This is a (day)sign which l never ever seen in use in the last 40 years. I had one handy, thou, l never used it.
Did your BSO friend object to the lack of it during daylight hours, yet?
Similar to this sign is another day sign never seen in use, though it is a legal requirement, is the inverted triangle above the fore deck when steaming.

Pretty hard to find the relevent rules on RMS website...
The page on night safety doesn't even refer to anchoring :
www.rms.nsw.gov.au/maritime/safety-rules/rules-regulations/night-safety.html

As far as Colregs is concerned; refererence:
-INTERNATIONAL- Lights and Shapes RULE 30 Anchored Vessels and Vessels Aground (a) A vessel at anchor shall exhibit where it can best be seen: (i) in the fore part, an all-round white light or one ball; (ii) at or near the stern and at a lower level than the light prescribed in subparagraph (i), an all-round white light. (b) A vessel of less than 50 meters in length may exhibit an all-round white light where it can best be seen instead of the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) of this Rule. (c) A vessel at anchor may, and a vessel of 100 meters and more in length shall, also use the available working or equivalent lights to illuminate her decks.
NOTE (b) uses the word "may", not shall.

From N.S.W. Legislation. Marine Safety Act:
Marine Safety Act 1998 No 121
Current version for 8 January 2019 to date (accessed 22 April 2019 at 13:30)
Part 2 Division 1 Section 10
10 Regulations for prevention of collisions at sea or in other navigable waters

(1) The regulations may make provision for or with respect to the prevention of collisions at sea or in other navigable waters (including the use on vessels of lights, shapes and signals).(2) The regulations under this section may adopt, with or without modification, international regulations for preventing collisions at sea.(3) The master or any other person concerned in the operation of a vessel who contravenes the regulations under this section, or who causes those regulations to be contravened, is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.
NOTE (2) states "with or without modification". yet gives no links to relevent modifications...
It is probably worth asking to see the legislation that he is refering to as it seems hard to find.....
Then please post a link.

Actually it is usually better NOT to have the light up the top of the mast.

I have an anchor light at the top of the mast but I usually use a small LED lantern that I hang about 4 meres above deck. This is bright enough to be seen at a reasonable distance but, and this is the important bit, it allows people, at close range, with wet weather hoods or hunching against the rain to see the deck of my boat and avoid her. A light at the top of the mast does not illuminate the deck and allows someone to hit you when they are looking down, scanning for unlit bouys or sticks etc and are closer than 100 metres or so. Some guys died on the Brisbane river died after hitting an lit anchored boat so there are people who may not see your boat if the light is 10 metres above where they are scanning.

The BSO is just being dumb. I mean what is a power boat supposed to do? Climb onto the cabin top with a nice LED setup from Jaycar. Fasten it 2 metres or more above the deck. Your boat is then lit up nicely on deck in the dim light of night AND can be seen from far away. Plug the thing into your cigarette lighter plug. I do this every night on board - takes 1 minute.

I would not use a light in the cockpit - it could be obscured by booms and cockpit clutter. Maybe a long or a twin setup light would ensure the BSO doesn;t get picky about the mast obscuring the light from one side.

BSO's have their salary paid for by our rego and mooring fees. You sometimes wouldn;t know it though. They really should be our advocates instead of haranguers.

cheers

Phil

Anchor lights are not about the 'visibility' of your vessel. They are a 'signal' to other vessels of what you are doing..

By all means light up your decks, cockpits or cabins to make yourself more visible. The regs even suggest it for vessels under 100m and require to do so for vessels over 100m. That way you can come into an anchorage, see another boat, look up and be signalled that it is anchored. I would imagine the day shapes are not too policed because it is far more obvious.

The emphasis on 'may' on the post above should not be construed as a boat less then 50m may or may not have an anchor light. It is saying that a boat less then 50m may deviate from the clause above that that requires two lights in two specific locations by putting one light where it would best (unobstructed view ie. 360 degrees) be seen.. Arguably, that place would be at the top of the mast...

As Gary was eluding to in his post above, you could pull a portable light up your forestay. to a point higher than the stern light, and you would comply with colregs. Problem solved for less than $25.

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morningsun said..
As Gary was eluding to in his post above, you could pull a portable light up your forestay. to a point higher than the stern light, and you would comply with colregs. Problem solved for less than $25.

It doesn't matter what you use as an anchor light. As long as it is a white light viewable unobstructed through 360 degrees.

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morningsun said..
As Gary was eluding to in his post above, you could pull a portable light up your forestay. to a point higher than the stern light, and you would comply with colregs. Problem solved for less than $25.

Fleabay have a couple with fresnel lenses and cable for around twenty dollars. fit it with a cig lighter plug, hoist to just above head height and all is good, even has led globe.

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Futurecruiser said..
Yeah I though the all around visible white light was the key requirement. I would argue that coming into an anchorage in dark stormy conditions you are probably less likely to see a masthead light, particularly if there are lights in the background.
I have a very bright solar LED mounted above the cockpit, you can see it here top right. High enough to be above the boom and all the fittings that might hide it. No dramas yet but be interested to hear if others have been told off for similar set ups.
Also have a very bright storm lantern I can hang from the boom or hoist as a back up.

After a jet skier ran into a yacht and killed himself in the Brisbane River, some QLD cruisers started mounting $3 LED garden lights in the cockpit as a warning nearer sea level. I did this in 2015 and just covered it with a beer can sock when sailing at night.

As Australia is a signatory to the IMO (and nsw is part of Australia ) there's a clause stating that no state laws will over ride colreg, polreg bla bla, even tho it's hardly relevant to a little yacht an allround white light is the reg. It doesn't say it has to be at the top of the mast but it's the obvious place for a 360 unobstructed light, I used one of the leds from bcf and ran the cable down the cap shroud. As sir G pointed out there's a back ball for anchoring in the day an inverted cone for motor sailing and a host of other signals that by regulation should be displayed.
sounds like one over zelest BSO, his surname isn't Rowe by any chance ? If it is beware the prick is likely to drag you into court and charge you via the penalty point system

Theres some good info here. I might raise my stern light a bit and pull something up the mast as well in the meantime.
This BO is becoming a problem. I really dont want him scooting up whenever he feels like it to tell me theres a courtesy mooring available or anything else. actually. It started with anchoring when i first got there, then lifejackets and whistles(i was made to go ashore and get more jackets as mine werent dated) then about a month ago he came up and checked the jackets again and i told him id serviced them myself and changed the gas cylinders. Cool - he left me alone. Then on saturday, twice in one day. Its getting annoying.
In the 5 years ive been sailing, ive had the boat in Pittwater for a time, Syd harbour for a time and traversed to QLD for 5 months.
Never have i seen this before.
I have licenses from the RYA, done 40k sea miles working on a billionaires yacht, have paper charts, 5 gps,'s , epirbs, PLb's. Boats re rigged and over rigged. I check it all the time. Fire blankets, extinguishers etc etc.
I can also handle my boat - having sailed her single handedly well over 2000 miles.
Ive accepted everything he's thrown at me so far, but there'll be a limit if this continues everytime i go out in the bay.

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nswsailor said..

After a jet skier ran into a yacht and killed himself in the Brisbane River, some QLD cruisers started mounting $3 LED garden lights in the cockpit as a warning nearer sea level. I did this in 2015 and just covered it with a beer can sock when sailing at night.

I like to be seen so I turn on my preety blue LEDs - even when there's a full moon

A lot of older yachts have a tri-colour only at the mast head . And a white light to haul up about 1/3 of the way , as an anchor light . Some also have nav lights at around deck height as well as an option instead of using the the tri colour, for nav lights . I think your set up part of the way up is good because it lights up the mast a bit and in fact is more visible than a mast head all round light

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Sectorsteve said..
Theres some good info here. I might raise my stern light a bit and pull something up the mast as well in the meantime.
This BO is becoming a problem. I really dont want him scooting up whenever he feels like it to tell me theres a courtesy mooring available or anything else. actually. It started with anchoring when i first got there, then lifejackets and whistles(i was made to go ashore and get more jackets as mine werent dated) then about a month ago he came up and checked the jackets again and i told him id serviced them myself and changed the gas cylinders. Cool - he left me alone. Then on saturday, twice in one day. Its getting annoying.
In the 5 years ive been sailing, ive had the boat in Pittwater for a time, Syd harbour for a time and traversed to QLD for 5 months.
Never have i seen this before.
I have licenses from the RYA, done 40k sea miles working on a billionaires yacht, have paper charts, 5 gps,'s , epirbs, PLb's. Boats re rigged and over rigged. I check it all the time. Fire blankets, extinguishers etc etc.
I can also handle my boat - having sailed her single handedly well over 2000 miles.
Ive accepted everything he's thrown at me so far, but there'll be a limit if this continues everytime i go out in the bay.

Maybe he needs to justify being out on the water rather than stuck in the office.
Maybe try being really friendly and invite him for coffee and a chat. Talk about the weather or football.

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Toph said..
Anchor lights are not about the 'visibility' of your vessel. They are a 'signal' to other vessels of what you are doing..

By all means light up your decks, cockpits or cabins to make yourself more visible. The regs even suggest it for vessels under 100m and require to do so for vessels over 100m. That way you can come into an anchorage, see another boat, look up and be signalled that it is anchored. I would imagine the day shapes are not too policed because it is far more obvious.

The emphasis on 'may' on the post above should not be construed as a boat less then 50m may or may not have an anchor light. It is saying that a boat less then 50m may deviate from the clause above that that requires two lights in two specific locations by putting one light where it would best hi(unobstructed view ie. 360 degrees) be seen.. Arguably, that place would be at the top of the mast...

Definitely.

I was out over Easter and spent three (glorious) nights in the same bay in Sydney Harbour. Staying over the different nights were between 10 to 25 boats, both power and sail (fairly even split) and ranging in size from 24ft to 60-65ft. I saw that with only one exception, every vessel was displaying an anchor light, set at the highest point. I also noted that most, at some times all, boats had some form of additional lighting, usually over the cockpit or somewhere astern. This ranged from full-on LEDs and floodlights (powerboats) to mast/spreader mounted deck lights, cockpit lighting or simple lanterns.
In a somewhat crowded anchorage, it made it very easy to see each boat.
The inevitable after dark latecomers were able to safely find their way through and find good, safe spots to anchor. Easy.
I use a solar light that fits into the flagpole mount - throws a decent light over the cockpit, transom and dink. It's probably not 360deg visible - it doesn't need to be - but it does light up most of the stern. Charges all day and turns itself on and off at dusk and dawn.

To use a christmas-tree type light galore in the harbour or a crowded anchoring spot is not just a total waste of energy but really unnecessary and can be disturbing for other boats.
A single anchor light on the mast head should be the only light used while anchoring under normal circumstances.

The only other light l ever used at night while sleeping on the ocean away from the mainland beside the anchor light was the tri-color mast-head light and to emphasize my position the deck-light which is a 4 light LED mid mast lighting up the fore deck at night. If one is drifting bare pole or heaving to out there a deck light is a big help to enhance one's visibility.

Single mast head light even in an isolated anchoring position is very dangerous if there are street or house lights in the background. If you do use a single masthead light then for your own safety leave the spreader lights on as well. I have had several near misses over the years coming into places like Currawong where there was only one yacht anchored!

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sirgallivant said..

The only other light l ever used at night while sleeping on the ocean away from the mainland beside the anchor light was the tri-color mast-head light and to emphasize my position the deck-light which is a 4 light LED mid mast lighting up the fore deck at night. If one is drifting bare pole or heaving to out there a deck light is a big help to enhance one's visibility.

This is a dangerous can of worms too...

Firstly you are not anchored by definition, you are still making way (different from underway). Secondly, the lights seen from another vessel would be white over either red (port aspect), green (starboard aspect) or another white (stern aspect), indicating you are a power vessel. Another yacht could then assume to be the stand on vessel. Or are we going to just work on the 'big ocean' theory and stay away from the light?

You may as well show two reds vertically -Not Under Command (just don't use your anchor light in combination with this one as that means vessel aground).

Using light combinations contrary to the Colregs may make you feel better, but it also confuses the situation and makes you more dangerous.