Rick W. and S/V Annie
Comment on Their Bebi Masthead LED Lights
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Rick W of the USA, with a VERY pretty boat, S/V 'Annie', comments on his BEBI LED lights and compares them to OGM lights. |
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Dear folks at Bebi You must be getting tired of the many notes like this from amazed and satisfied customers but I feel compelled to share with you two comments I received recently from mates who keep their boats in the same marina as ANNIE our 26’ Norwalk Islands Sharpie. ANNIE spends the summer on a mooring at Davis Creek, a tributary to the Chester River and Chesapeake Bay on the eastern shore of Maryland . To set the scene, last winter I removed a very expensive OGM masthead light and fixture that had somehow filled with rain water and was junk {Ed Note: You might also take a look at this thread on the SSCA Discussion Board as to one reason why we don't use a PWM controller in our products}. As a replacement, I used an old Guest masthead combination tri-color and anchor light fixture with a Bebi Owl cluster for the anchor light and a more powerful Bebi Malosi light to illuminate the tri-color part of the Guest fixture. By referring to the Bebi wiring diagrams included with the lights it was an easy and straight forward job to re-engineer the fixture and mast wiring to accept the new Bebi bulbs. It was satisfying to see the amount of light the new bulbs provided at the work bench after the bulbs were installed, however the true test is always; how would they perform on the water? Additionally, my on-board electrical system consists solely of two group 27 AGM batteries, charged by two 5 watt PV solar panels working through a controller/regulator. Although our mooring is in a protected cove, and most boats in the mooring field are left dark at night, I decided to test my new anchor light by leaving it illuminated throughout a week while the boat was unattended, that way, when I returned to the boat the next weekend I could gauge how much the new anchor light had drawn down the batteries. After leaving the anchor light lit 24 hours a day for six days, I got my first hint that I might really be on to something with Bebi LED clusters. First, the batteries were topped-up, no discernable drain! after running non-stop for a week. Wonderful. Secondly, as I rowed back from our mooring I passed a friends boat and stopped to chat. He lives aboard his boat and over a cold beer he related a story about the first time he noticed my new anchor light from inside his boat. Late one dark night, he saw the light of a helicopter hovering over the field next to the cove. When the helicopter and its bright light didn’t move, he went up on deck to investigate……… and realized the helicopter he had been watching was my new Bebi anchor light! The story was well worth the second round of beers. Finally, two weeks ago as I rowed back to the dock after completing preparations for our winter haul-out, a sailor on his boat in one of the slips stopped me and again we chatted and he said “What the hell have you got on your mast head at night? He said from where his slip was (about 500 meters from my mooring) my anchor light was the brightest he had ever seen and when I described the low battery drain and the fact that the tri-color Malosi cluster had twice the light output compared to the anchor light he demanded to know where he could get some bulbs for his running lights. I told him the Bebi story, gave him your web address and I’m sure you’ll be hearing from him soon. As for me, my winter project list includes new Bebi LED clusters for interior house lights. Thanks for making such a great product. Best regards Rick W s/v ANNIE Davis Creek, MD USA |
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Norwalk Island Sharpie Photos courtesy of, and Copyright © of, Robert Ayliffe, Norwalk Island Sharpies
Copyright © 2007-2010 Rick W, & Bebi Electronics, Ltd.
