Cruising-Sailing

Sail Boat Lighting Concept to Save Battery By Lance Winslow

Lights on sailboats are very important because you do not want to get hit by another vessel. Once the sun goes down you do not have the advantage of being seen as you do during the daytime with that huge sail. There is a lot of vibrational energy, which could be harvested from a sail to power up an LED bright white light. This energy could power up lights on you sailboat for nearly anything, thus saving your fuel for your generator. For long voyages you can use this energy for lighting, rather than draining the batteries.

The buffeting of the sail and that vibrational energy can be used to power up the lights using electromagnetic induction technology to charge a capacitor instead of the headlights working off a battery. Currently there are some nifty micro-flashlights being used which you can buy which use a similar technique and are available thanks to the Everlite Flashlight technology research lab. These smaller flashlights work by shaking them for about thirty seconds and shine for about 6 minutes and they shine quite bright since they use a very bright LED light. Here is a link to this home use flashlight:

http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/ee_shakelight.html

Here is a quick movie you can watch online to see how this technology works.

http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/movies/ee_forever.MPG

I propose we use the wave action against the hull and the buffeting of the sail to light the interior lights and collision avoidance lights. If the lights get too dim from too calm seas, yah, we wish, then the system would revert back to the battery. Perhaps this is a good way to save fuel and energy; allowing the wind and waves to power up all we really need? Think on this.