Flashlights:

Hey if you don’t have a flashlight for the boat, you should. I have been playing with flashlights specifically “for the boat” for some time now. Now I know everyone has a favorite brand or what ever but my question is how many of you have sourced a flashlight specifically for Boating?

What I have found is you want a flashlight that doesn’t blind you when you use it to navagate. Example typical flash light you turn it on and it floods the inside of the boat with light, most boats have a light colored interior and at night your eyes have adjusted down to low light and the flash light most of the time binds you. What you need is a “spot light” you need beam that leaves the boat in a very narrow beam so none of the light or very little of it comes in contact with the interior of the boat.

This makes it way easier to see and doesn’t blind you. So most traditional flash lights are not gonna get the job done. What your looking for or should look for is a Spot light or penciled beam or Spot light. #2 the best flash light is one you use and can get to all the time. So yes big bulky flash lights are great but when your navigating at night and you see something that looks odd you don’t have time to fumble or look around for a big bulky light. #3 most of the time your driving and with one hand on the throttle and or one on the wheel leaves you a hand short. So a small manageable light is a plus. #4 a small manageable light fits on most dash boards where you can get to it and see it in a hurry. So it you notice a theme here. You want it manageable and you want to be able to access it fast. And that brings me to my last point. #5 the on off switch. Most lights these days have a tail cap switch, and most tail cap switches doubble as the way you toggle threw the “modes” if you don’t know what I’m taking about, most lights have 3-4-5 different modes SOS Flash Dim, blah blah blah all useless IMO. You don’t need all that crap for this light. You need to be able to grab it and quickly turn it on. You don’t need to toggle threw 5 different modes to get to the one you like. A simple On and Off switch on the Stock NOT the tail cap works best. It’s much easier to drive and turn the light on and off when the on and off switch is on the body of the light Vs a tail cap switch. So IMO stay away from lights with tail cab switches. #6 “18650 Battery’s”. If you don’t know what a 18650 is your living under a rock no but seriously they are awesome battery’s and they power most high powerd lights so look for a light that uses a 18650 battery. Get a multi bank Battey charger so you can recharge all your flashlight and AA and AAA battery’s and be done with stupid throw away alkaline batteries. If your feeling bold You can slowly switch over all your AA to lithium rechargebales while your at it.

Any ways here is a look as my Fav flash lights.

The Big Daddy in the right is the BLF GT. Do a you tube search it has a beam of almost 2 miles its no joke: (spotlight runs on 8 “18650”) $300 + battery’s.

The one in the center is a Mini version of the BLF GT. It’s called the GT Mini (spotlight runs on 1 “18650) $50 on Amazon

The one on the far left is the SD-4 (spotlight) runs on 4 AAA $50 Amazon