Recommend me a light for nighttime marathon canoe racing

Hello,

Found this forum the other day, and have been lurking and reading non-stop. You community is awesome, and I find it incredible how many people are dedicated to this subject.

Our light needs are very specific at this point. In 5 weeks at 9pm, I'm entered in the AuSable Canoe Marathon. It's a 120 mile race that starts at 9pm, and you have 19 hours to paddled to the end of the river where it dumps in to Lake Huron. There is a HUGE variety of lamps used by the paddlers that do the race, ranging from high end cycling lights, to tactical lights like the TK41, to adapted Cap Lamps, all the way back to the basic plain jane old school MagLite.

Our needs are as follows:

1.) Waterproof- This is my first marathon, and my partner's fourth. He's never made it through the night without tipping at some point. I'm hoping to change that streak for him, but until then would like a light that take a quick dunk underwater and still function.

2.) Battery Life- Must be able to go 8-9 hours. You can typically paddle the first hour in with the light off. And then by 5:30-6:00am the sun is coming up enough that you don't need the light anymore.

3.) Good reach/spread- The further/wider you can see, the more chances you have to spot obstructions/stumps/etc. Something adjustable would be nice.

4.) Easy on/off- Often times you'll ride directly behind another canoe/canoes. In which case, only the lead boat will typically have their light on. The easier the lamp is to turn on/off, the less time you spend with paddles out of the water.

5.) Cheap- Not necessarily a requirement, but the cheaper the better. Funds are getting tight to say the least. I really like a fellow competitors TK41 setup, but dropping a benjamin+ hurts on a light. I'm even cool with used if it works good and does what we need it to do.

At this point we're going to trial run the TerraLUX TLE-6EXB (I've read the horror stories on here, if nothing else it's a $15 way to breath a little life in to an old friend) in an old 3d MagLite that I had laying around collecting dust. I think this might do the trick, as my Bow Paddler (the guy in the front) had always ran the old school MagLites before. This should provide a nice upgrade without breaking the bank. That said, we're 5 weeks from showtime, and I'd love to have some alternatives to practice with as well.

Thanks for you time,
TheGambler

You might want to consider a Headlight/lamp

Or, what about dangling around your neck a Fenix CL 25R, or some other small inconspicuous lantern?

The trade offs in performance, price, runtime and brightness typically involve the brighter the light, the faster it uses up the power, but, the more you can see at a time....and, if using rechargeable cells for example, you can swap in fresh ones when the light's getting dim, etc...but you'll need about 15 seconds to do the swap...not sure how tight the race is.



If the light is run dim enough to conserve cell life, no night time swap would be needed.

After that, its throw/range vs flood...the floodier the light, for the same range and intensity, the more power/the shorter your runtime/the more you can see at a time.

IE: A floody light uses a lot more power to hit the same range as a throwy pattern.


So, from a practical stand point, you probably need about 10 seconds or more of lead time to see an obstacle, and, initiate/execute an avoidance maneuver, and ~ 30 seconds to be able to pick a line through a series of obstacles.

You mentioned stumps, which are hard to see, so, ~ 30 lux on them, at longer distances, might be needed.


What speed would you be worried about needing the longest advanced sight lines at, in that run? The faster you're going, the further away that place you'll be in 30 seconds is....etc...and the longer the range of the light might need to be.

Thanks for the responses.

Everyone uses lamps that mount directly to the Bow of the boat. The style is variable though as demonstrated by the bows of boats in this photo from last years start (you run .25-.5 miles before you get in the water, depending on how you qualify, we're gonna run a long ways lol).



As far as speeds, for a team like us, we average about 7 mph, with peaks in to the 9.5 range. Due to how the river winds, the longest we can ever really see is appx 3/8th's of a mile, but there is one pond/lake crossing that has to be done in the dark that is full of stumps.

30-60 seconds of vision is a nice minimum. It's not just obstacles that you're trying to avoid, but little speed boosts in current that you're trying to hit as well.

If you are looking for something mounted to the boat I would be looking at bike lights. The Fenix BC30R is rechargeable which means it could be rigged to an external battery. Give you plenty of light. Plenty of battery, even has an remote switch for quickly changing power settings. Problem is you are looking $200-$250 for that setup by the time you get the light and battery, so a bit out of your price range.

Oh man I sooo want to do this! I visit the Grayling area often and wonder what this would be like...and of course what flashlights I would take! Good luck!

Stop by Spike's for a Spikeburger if you have time

You only have a few weeks, so you need to get something now. Get it mounted and get out there and train with it. Your partner has experience using a 3 D-cell, so stick with that approach. There are two ways to go about this. First, just buy a good mag light drop in like those by Malkoff designs and put it in the flashlight you have. The second, and my suggestion, is to buy 2 each of the 3 D-cell Maglight LED model. Mount them side by side on the bow with something like "P" clamps or Conduit clamps. This way you can use one at a time normally, and two at the same time for those situations when you need a little more light. In addition you have redundancy should one fail. One light should get you through, but if it does not, just switch on the other light. No need to waste time changing batteries. I take this approach bicycling.

After the event, come back and we can discuss lights for next years event. When there is more time. Most likely the crowd here will help you to increase performance, save weight, and cut back on the size of your lighting system.

Best of luck in your event

markr6 said:

Oh man I sooo want to do this! I visit the Grayling area often and wonder what this would be like...and of course what flashlights I would take! Good luck!

Stop by Spike's for a Spikeburger if you have time

Click to expand...

I live right in Grayling

This is a lifelong goal of mine, grew up in West Branch, but my Father has lived here since the late 80's. I've been working towards it ever since the Mrs. and I moved here 6-7 years ago. This year, I make attempt #1 at what will hopefully become a long career in canoe racing.

If you like beer, there are two new Microbrew Pubs in town, with a third on the way. Little pricey, but still good stuff.

Bicycleflyer said:

You only have a few weeks, so you need to get something now. Get it mounted and get out there and train with it. Your partner has experience using a 3 D-cell, so stick with that approach. There are two ways to go about this. First, just buy a good mag light drop in like those by Malkoff designs and put it in the flashlight you have. The second, and my suggestion, is to buy 2 each of the 3 D-cell Maglight LED model. Mount them side by side on the bow with something like "P" clamps or Conduit clamps. This way you can use one at a time normally, and two at the same time for those situations when you need a little more light. In addition you have redundancy should one fail. One light should get you through, but if it does not, just switch on the other light. No need to waste time changing batteries. I take this approach bicycling.

After the event, come back and we can discuss lights for next years event. When there is more time. Most likely the crowd here will help you to increase performance, save weight, and cut back on the size of your lighting system.

Best of luck in your event

Click to expand...

I like the redundancy option. I'll have to look at the canoe when I get back home in a few days and see if two lights could be mounted side by side. I've seen a couple guys stack them vertically, but I'm not sure stacking them side by side will fit.

Eagles1181 said:

If you are looking for something mounted to the boat I would be looking at bike lights. The Fenix BC30R is rechargeable which means it could be rigged to an external battery. Give you plenty of light. Plenty of battery, even has an remote switch for quickly changing power settings. Problem is you are looking $200-$250 for that setup by the time you get the light and battery, so a bit out of your price range.

Click to expand...

The bike light setups are great as most of them are already weather proof. Thanks for the recommendation on the BC30R. I like the Fenix goodies, they come highly recommended from all walks of life/usages. With a little luck, we can land a decent sponsor or two and use that money to pick up a nice light setup.

Ever Done Tour De Teche?

I help out with that race every year. I also made several Head Lamp suggestions to a few Paddlers. But, They are required to keep a navigation light on the bow of the boat. It also must be viewable 360 degrees. One crafty fellow mounted a cheap Solar Garden lamps to the bow and stern. He upgraded the battery. It worked great. It was visible about a hundred yards on a clear night. It also didn't effect his night vision.
I also noticed most had several electronics that required 12 volts. Some carried a small SLA battery to run that and a solar panel to keep it topped off during they day. They had their chase team carry a spare too. GPS & Cell phone charging.
I suggested the Nitecore HC90, with protected cells and a spare carrier on the side of the strap. They liked having the red light to see around in the boat and keep their night vision. I also suggest the ArmyTek Tiara pro.

If it rains, wear a ball cap to help keep the water off the light. They are water resistant, but it can't help to keep it dry.

One fellow had a cool rig. He had a headlamp that he mounted 2 lights on. He had a lightweight lower lumen one on the back. Neat way to carry a back up.

Never done the Tour De Teche. I'm not nearly good enough to travel and paddle at this point.

In an interesting turn, I talked to one of the top 10 teams from the past few years today. Their whole clan runs TerraLUX lightstar 300. They buy two new lights before the Marathon each year and have never had a problem with them. Plenty of vision on low, easy to epoxy a block on the switch to make it easier to hit with a paddle to turn on/off, and cheap enough to not sweat buying new ones before the big dance.

I always recommend the brand HybridLight for anyone who does watersports. They are sealed units and completely waterproof, you don't even have to think about batteries, and they FLOAT IN WATER.
Maybe not exactly what you are looking for in this case, but definitely worth considering for anybody who is going to paddle at night.
I attach two of the 160lm models the bow of my boat. The new model is 250 lumen, and can charge your phone.

Beware of imitators, get genuine HybridLight.
http://hybridlight.com/products/