Lights for the TWSJay Daniel-Rainmaker Canoes With the flood of information on lights for the TWS I thought it was time to attempt to set the record straight on several fronts. Most TWS veterans are not stingy with their information. If you don?t understand the answer keep asking until you do. The information contained here is general in nature. For more specifics contact one of the companies that build lights and battery packs for the TWS. There are two important things to consider when
building your lighting system for the TWS. How long will you be out at night
and how bright do you want your lights to be? Of secondary importance is the
weight of the system. How long will you be out at night?
The length of darkness during the race is about 9 hours. Sundown is
approximately 8:30 PM and Sunup is approximately 6:30 AM. There is usually
sufficient light 30 minutes after sundown and before sunup. This being the case
if you are in one of the top two or three boats, or plan to finish in under 36
hours, you will need one night of lights. If you plan to finish in less than 60
hours you will need two nights and so on. How bright do you want your lights
to be? The speed of your boat and your familiarity of the river are the primary
considerations. If you are in a faster boat you will want brighter lights in
order to have plenty of time to react to upcoming obstacles. If you are
unfamiliar with the river then you will need bright lights to have an idea of
what you are coming up against. If the moon is full then you will either need
lights bright enough to overpower the moonlight or you will need to turn them
off so that you don?t have competing shadows to contend with. The matter of how long your lights
will last is a simple but time-consuming thing to compute. There is also a
direct conflict between brightness and longevity. To compute how long your
batteries will last requires some basic math. Battery life is computed in amp
hours. This information is available from the battery cell manufacturer. You
will also need to know the continuous amp draw rating of your battery cells and
the wattage of the lamp that you are using. The formula is watts/volts = Amp
Draw. So if you are using a 6-volt system with a 12-watt lamp you are drawing 2
amps. If you have a battery pack life of 20 hours, and the maximum continuous
amp draw rating is 2 or greater you will have 10 hours of light out of your
setup. How bright do you want your lights?
As a general rule the higher the wattage the brighter the light. You will also
need to take into account the width of the beam that your reflector puts out.
The tighter the beam the more intense the light. For an object lesson take your
Mag-Lite out and fiddle with the head between spot and flood. Lamps can be made
to burn brighter by overdriving them. Most lamps can be overdriven by 20%. This
is why you will see the boats with better lights running 12-volt lamps at 15 volts.
The problem with higher wattage lamps of duration of the battery pack. What type of battery pack should you
use? Should you use Alkaline or
Lithium? This is where the issue of weight, reliability, and cost come in. To
use a lithium battery pack you will need to know which type of Lithium battery
to use. If you use the wrong type you will have great lights for a short period
of time then nothing. Be careful with lithium batteries, they can be internally
fused and if you short one in the assembly process then you will have nothing.
If they are not internally fused then you need to externally fuse them, they
can get hot and explode. If you use Alkaline Batteries use individual cells
with a pack from an electronics supply store. Open up your Lantern battery and
what do you see? You will see individual cells. You will have to put your
batteries in series (positive to negative) to increase the voltage and in
parallel (positive to positive) to increase amp hours. Lithium battery packs that are properly assembled
are more reliable than Alkaline. With good wiring I can tell a customer within
minutes of how long their batteries will last when paired with a known lamp.
Lithium batteries have a flat curve if charted throughout their life and then
die quickly. Alkaline will ?fade? throughout their life gradually growing
dimmer. Lithium Battery packs are substantially more expensive than alkaline.
If weight is an issue then Lithium gets the nod. A lithium battery pack at 15
volts weighs about 4lbs and will run a 12 watt lamp for up to 3 nights. An
alkaline battery pack will weigh the same but you will need to carry several. What type of lamp should you use?
The most commonly used lamps today are Mr-11?s. (This includes the top 5
finishers in the 2001 TWS) This number refers to the size of the lamps and they
are available from 7.5 watts to 35+ watts and in both 12 and 6 volts. You will find that they are Generally referred
to by the letters FTA, FTB and so on. These letters indicate the wattage of the
lamp and the spread of the beam. The letters FC or CG may also follow them. These
letters indicate that the lamp has a glass covering. This glass covering is
necessary to keep the hot lamp from shattering when the water hits it. So a
lamp labeled MR-11 FTA/CG is a 12 volt, twelve watt, and covered glass lamp. The
GE-965 used to be the most popularly used lamp. These were a 9-volt lamp that
was about 12 watts and drew 1 amp when overdriven to 12 volts. The main reason
that they fell out of favor was the fact that they became very hard to find and,
the ones that were found had the filament in the wrong place to focus in most
of the available holders. This is the setup still used by Tom Goynes (7 time
winner and 20 time finisher) My suggestion is to use a MR-11 with the wattage
and beam spread that you feel most comfortable with. Holders for MR-11 lamps
can either be commercially made or of the appropriately sized tubing.
Commercial holders are used on bicycles. (Nightrider comes to mind) If you
check with the bike shops they can order the heads for you without the battery
and save a chunk of money. Should you use 1 lamp or 2? I don?t
know of any MR-11 lamps failing during the TWS. They advertise a life span of
2000 hours. So if back up is your concern it probably isn?t necessary. Some
boats use a lower wattage lamp for most of their race with a higher wattage lamp
on a switch to use as a high beam. Some (the fastest) teams use two higher
wattage lamps with one switched. It comes down to preference or comfort level. Should you use switches or direct plug
in? I prefer direct plug in for its simplicity. For using a high beam or in a
Solo boat switches become a necessary evil. Flat trailer type plugs work best for
connectors. Solder all of your wires and use marine grade 14-16-gauge wire. Soldering
prevents corrosion where the wires meet. The smaller the wire the greater the
resistance. This is especially important in boats that have a long run of wire.
Mounting the light assembly to the
boat is another consideration. Some paddlers are comfortable using Hook and
Loop (Velcro) fasteners with a bungee cord holding the assembly in place. Some
have permanent mounts that the assembly hooks into that can be adjusted up and down
and in some cases side to side. I prefer a screw through the base of the
assembly to hold it in place with a patch of Hook and Loop to keep the assembly
from pivoting side to side. Headlamps (mounted on the paddler?s
head) are a personal choice item. They are generally used in tight spots and on
portages. An exception to this rule is Peter Derrick who wears his headlamp
instead of a bowlamp. (If you don?t know who Peter Derrick is then you need to
do a lot more homework on the Race) Some, such as Solo paddlers and Bowmen,
wear them constantly so they can turn them on in a hurry. Some, such as
sternmen and those who don?t like the weight on their head, wear them only as
needed or use them to rummage through their food at night. Comfort is the most
important consideration here. Rarely do you run out of battery for your
headlight. They range from cheap units that aren?t very bright to bright units
(Petzel and Niterider) that are bright enough to use as backup bow lights. They
also can be powered by either alkaline or Lithium Batteries. Is cost a factor? When one looks at
the expense of doing the TWS light and battery cost is a relatively minor
expense. A lithium battery pack costs $200+ and I don?t know the cost of alkaline
batteries or how many it would take to finish the race. When I hear reports of
people being put out of the race by light failure I wonder what system they had?
I then wonder how much they had spent getting ready for the TWS only to try to
save money on batteries? All of the sudden it becomes obvious that, while
expensive, it is a lot cheaper than wasting all of that time and money to
finish part of a race. Let?s take a hypothetical novice team. New Alumnacraft
$750, Rigging $250, Spray Cover $250, 3 Paddles $450, Travel and Hotel Expenses
$1000 (probably low unless you camp, cook and/or live on the racecourse) and food
for the race $150 for a total of $2850. This represents quite an investment to
have go down the tubes because your lights weren?t prepared properly. The Bow
lamp Assembly and the headlight are one-time expenses. Batteries are expendable.
I would suggest contacting one of
the companies that could supply you with the lighting system. Safari Sport 512-357-6751
Spencer Canoes 512-357-6113 TG Canoe Livery 512-353-3946 or Rainmaker Canoes
281-787-2271 Jay Daniel is the Owner
and Operator of Rainmaker Canoes and a 7-time Finisher of the TWS. Rainmaker has spent
over $2000 researching Lithium Batteries and testing them to failure. Rainmaker
has built the winning boat in Every TWS since 1995 and worked on the winner
since 1992. Every winner sine 1992 has had their lights powered by battery
packs from Rainmaker. In 2001 the top 5 boats had Rainmaker Battery Packs |