Revolutionize Your Boating Experience with Innovative Lighting's New NAV-Docking Lights

By Harry Aller, Innovative Lighting

Boating safety is paramount, especially when navigating in low-visibility conditions. Proper lighting plays a crucial role in ensuring that vessels are seen and can safely dock in all weather and light conditions. Recognizing this need, Innovative Lighting launched its groundbreaking new product – the NAV-Docking Light. This light not only serves as a navigational signal but also provides docking assistance, merging two essential functions into one compact, versatile, and powerful light engine.

In this blog, we’ll explore the features and benefits of Innovative Lighting’s latest C-5 compliant NAV-Docking Light, designed to meet and exceed modern safety standards while offering unmatched flexibility and durability.

Sparking the Idea: the NAV-Docking Lights

Traditionally, the marine industry has struggled with separate systems for navigation and docking, leading to cluttered designs and compromised safety in challenging environments. Innovative Lighting’s NAV-Docking Light solves this problem by integrating both functionalities in a streamlined package, making it the go-to solution for anyone seeking a sleek, efficient, and highly functional lighting system.

The Evolution of NAV-Docking Lights

Innovative Lighting has been at the forefront of marine lighting solutions for decades, releasing its first light fixture in 1993. However, as the marine industry evolved, so did the standards for navigation lighting. The older lights were based on a simple linear circuit, robust for their time, and a staple in the market due to their cutting-edge technology.

With the update to the C-5 standard, the demands for sharper cutoff angles and maintaining full brightness to the edge of the cutoff became mandatory. These updated requirements ensure that boats are seen clearly, regardless of weather conditions, ensuring better safety for all vessels on the water.

However, meeting these standards presented challenges. Engineers initially believed that achieving these goals within the desired size, price, and flexibility constraints would be impossible. Through cross-collaboration with other departments within the company, specifically leveraging innovations from GENISYS, Innovative Lighting overcame these challenges, passing the ABYC C-5 testing and ensuring that the NAV-Docking Light met the new standard.

Key Features of the NAV-Docking Light

The new NAV-Docking Light is a compact, advanced LED light designed to meet the latest C-5 standard for marine navigation lights. This versatile light engine boasts several key features that set it apart from the competition:

Compact Size: Despite its small size, the light engine provides brighter and more focused illumination, ensuring maximum visibility.
Advanced Driver Technology: Developed through cross-collaboration with GENISYS, this cutting-edge driver technology achieves brightness levels and cutoff angles that other lights cannot match.
Integrated Docking Light: Offering enhanced visibility when docking, this feature is essential for safe mooring operations in low-light conditions.
Flexible Mounting Options: The light can be mounted on the deck, bow, canopy, or rub rail, making it adaptable to various boat designs.
Meets the C-5 Standard: The sharper cutoff ensures full brightness to the edge, improving the vessel’s visibility in any condition.
Durable Design: The NAV-Docking Light is completely sealed and designed to withstand harsh marine environments, ensuring long-lasting performance.
Customizable Cover: The light features a customizable “suit” that allows boatbuilders to tailor the appearance to match their brand’s aesthetic, ensuring a seamless integration with various boat designs while maintaining the robust functionality of the light engine.

Check out the NAV-Docking Light Spec Sheet to see more.

Engineering Breakthroughs: The Advanced Technology Behind NAV-Docking Lights

The engineering challenges in developing Innovative Lighting’s NAV-Docking Lights were significant. One hurdle was meeting the new C-5 standard, which requires sharper light cutoffs and full brightness right to the edges. The engineers had to overcome significant technical challenges, almost “breaking the laws of physics,” as Scott Drobny, Innovative Lighting’s National Sales Manager, joked, “to create such precision in such a small light. It’s like trying to maintain a sharp shadow close to a light source, which becomes increasingly difficult with proximity.” Utilizing team members’ past experiences in other sensory industries, the team utilized a “horn” commonly used in loud-speakers, to shape the light and meet the cutoff requirements. These advancements led to addition of another patent to the company’s vast intellectual property portfolio. On top of achieving this sharp cutoff, they managed to integrate a docking light for better visibility when approaching docks at night, all within a small, compact unit.

Another challenge was developing a versatile light engine that could be universally mounted on various boat types. Traditionally,different lights were needed for different areas, but this light can be mounted in multiple configurations—from deck mounts, to rub rails and more.

Moreover, the team designed it to be easily customizable, so boat manufacturers can utilize their own housings, allowing the light to fit their brand aesthetic without re-engineering the core light engine. Combined with the advanced driver technology, this flexibility makes the NAV-Docking Light a breakthrough, combining advanced technology, versatility, and precision..

In addition, the integrated circuit and heat protection ensures longevity, reducing the need for maintenance and replacement. The NAV-Docking Light has been rigorously tested by third-party labs for vibration, shock, dry heat, low temperature, and solar radiation resistance. It passed all tests, meeting the C-5 standard and achieving the desired “type accepted” status with the ABYC.

NAV-Docking Lights Solve Multiple Challenges for Boat Builders and Wholesalers

The NAV-Docking Light has been strategically designed to fit a unique market niche. For boatbuilders, it provides a sleek, customizable solution that can be adapted to any design, eliminating the need to settle for off-the-shelf products. This light fits seamlessly into any boat aesthetic, giving builders the freedom to create a unified look across their designs.

For wholesalers, the NAV-Docking Light offers a modern solution to replace outdated systems that no longer meet current standards. This product provides a competitive edge in the market by offering unmatched flexibility in mounting options and customizable appearance.

Order Customized NAV-Docking Light Today

Innovative Lighting’s NAV-Docking Light represents a significant leap forward in marine lighting technology. Combining advanced safety features, cutting-edge technology, and a versatile design, this new product sets a new standard for navigation and docking lights. Compact, customizable, and compliant with the latest standards, this light is the perfect solution for builders and wholesalers alike.

Don’t settle for outdated lighting systems. Contact Innovative Lighting today to customize your navigation lights, or visit the product page for detailed specifications. For inquiries, reach out to Scott Drobny, National Sales Manager, at sdrobny@innovativelight.com.