It is great to see vessels back on the water at Great Salt Lake after being in the parking lot for two years.  And many of you have been experiencing the nice evening breezes that Great Salt Lake can provide.  I also appreciate the compliance of navigation lights at night that everyone has been using when sailing after sunset . . . until last night.

In accordance with Utah Laws and Rules, navigation lights are REQUIRED to be on between sunset and sunrise.  If your boat is moving you must have all three navigation lights in working order.  This means red, green and white lights must be working.  If you are anchored you must have a functioning 360⁰ white light.

I operate the rescue boats at night on a fairly regular basis.  We have sophisticated equipment on the boats including RADAR.  Yet sailboats, with their curved sides, make horrible RADAR targets.  I can point to countless articles where sailboats, without navigation lights, were hit at night because they weren’t seen visually or by RADAR.  Some of these collisions resulted in fatalities. 

With all the light pollution created by Kennecott, it is also hard to detect another vessel at night unless they are using their navigation lights.

PLEASE!  USE YOUR NAVIGATION LIGHTS BETWEEN SUNSET AND SUNRISE!  It is the law.  If they don’t work, don’t go out until they do.  If you don’t want to use them, don’t go out after sunset.

Dave Shearer

Harbor Master

Great Salt Lake State Marina

Antelope Island State Marina

801-209-9142