Five years ago, at significant expense, we fitted LED mast head tricolour and all-round white lights. We used the Danish made LOPOLIGHT which seemed to offer much reduced electricity consumption and bullet proof design. They are advertised as maintenance free and completely waterproof. Indeed the website mentions that thy are suitable for submarines!

This winter the lights were inspected and found to be severely corroded with most of the individual LED 's not working. It seems that they are far from waterproof.

The good news is that Lopolight have replaced them without fuss and I have no complaints about their after sales service BUT they do need to revise their advertising pitch for this premium priced product. A browse of the web reveals that this is a common failure.

Simon. We have OCC friends Tony and Angela Maslin aboard Tana Vika who had the same problems with the Lopolight when we met them again in Nova Scotia last summer as we all assembled for the Newfoundland Rally. I think theirs had been in use for about 5 years also. They were not so lucky with the manfacturers and there was so much difficulty about replacing them that Tony fitted the American "Dr LED" as a replacement and greatly reduced cost. I am about to fit Dr LED to Al Shaheen this year.

A little more detail from Tana Vika. Our masthead Lopolight tricolour was just over 3 years old. It simply did not survive a Maine winter sitting at the top of the mast with the boat on the hard. It was working when we left the boat and failed 30 mins into the first overnight voyage of the new season.

Lopolight were less than helpful. They refused to consider it might be a manufacturing fault until they had seen it. And from Nova Scotia that 's a little tricky. Their preferred explanation was a near miss lightning strike. I checked this out and Maine had been blitzed with a plethora of sub-zero 40+knot gales (sufficient to move the boat on its stands), copious quantities of snow, but no lightning.

So I dumped the Lopolight and fitted an Aquasignal 40 with a Dr LED: much reduced cost, uses less power, good colours, probably brighter and if anything goes wrong it 's a simple bulb replacement.

From my experience I have to conclude that the Loopolight product is nothing like as robust as they claim and their 5 year world wide warranty is completely meaningless.

Sad to say, Lopolights are hopeless. I bought my first in 2005 when they were the first in the market and that didn 't last long.
However, they 've always replaced them without question.
When my fourth finally failed, I gave up.
Bought an Aquasignal - no problems.

See my post 2 years ago. We bought a Dr LED array in the USA and fitted it in our Aqua Signal MH fitting and it has been great.

http://www.doctorled.com/
John, you haven 't come across them on this side of the Atlantic have you?

Vice Commodore, OCC 

Daria
No, but then I haven 't spent much time over here and I haven 't looked. I bought mine from a chandlery in Nova Scotia (Binnacle) but Dr LED in the US supply them direct and I am sure would ship. Retail price in US is about $60.

Have a look at:
https://www.doctorled.com/store/nav-LED-bulb/tricolor-LED-nav-bulb You want the Polar Star 40 series, tricolour for Aqua Signal.

For premium, harsh-environment LED lighting, I can recommend Orca Green Marine, now part of the Misea Group. I have had a OGM tri-white for many years, and it has performed perfectly.
http://www.miseagroup.com/solutions/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_5_7&products_id=19

I had Hella LED sidelights, and they failed within two months (corrosion getting in, as for the Lopolight). I replaced them with cheap Far-Eastern LED sidelights and West Marine own-brand LED sternlight ($40) - no problems. Some folks can get it right, others can 't :(
http://www.westmarine.com/navigation-lights/west-marine--rectangular-flush-mount-led-stern-light--13022157

Had to replace my stern stbd and tricolour/anchor light fittings in Cape Town after two years... Still OK except had to replace stbd navlight again last year... Port navlight still OK after 6 yrs ... Fingers crossed....

The CA has just issued this release.

PRESS RELEASE

LED Bulbs should not be used in navigation lights designed for filament bulbs.

Replacing filament bulbs with white LEDs in tricolour navigational lights could result in vessels not being insured.

Coloured light fittings designed to use filament bulbs are not suitable for LEDs, claim the Cruising Association’s Regulation and Technical Services team (RATS), and therefore in the event of an incident could invalidate insurance.

White LEDs do not emit the wavelengths required to correctly illuminate the red and green sectors, and, as a result the colours observed are totally outside of the IMO specifications.

In addition, a tungsten filament bulb has a single vertical wire as the light source, whereas LEDs emit light path angles greater than the permitted 2 degree cut-off limit between tricolour sectors. A boat’s heading will therefore be unclear to another vessel over a significant arc, and, the merging beams will give strange colours as they overlap.

This issue does not affect navigation light fittings designed to take LED bulbs. The MCA has issued a Guidance Note highlighting these problems, and a warning not to use LED white replacement bulbs in equipment designed for filament bulb use.

The Cruising Association’s RATS will be at the Southampton Boat Show today with a navigation light to demonstrate the issues.

Vice Commodore, OCC