Chisester Harbour Installs Self-Powered LED Light

Says Richard Craven, Deputy Harbour Master, Chichester Harbour Conservancy: "We 
selected the Vega VLB-44 lights because of their low maintenance, robust build 
and reliability. Chichester Harbour is officially designated as an area of 
outstanding natural beauty and as such is extremely popular with sailing and 
leisure craft throughout the year, as well as serving commercial enterprises 
including fishing and boatyards.

"In addition, the entrance to Chichester Harbour is low lying and indistinct and 
is flanked on either side by sand and shingle banks that extend for more than a 
mile off-shore. For all these reasons, the light we installed on the new outer 
mark to the harbour entrance, West Pole, needed to be one that we could trust 
and would perform in all conditions. The VLB has more than met our 
expectations. The range of this Vega light is also excellent - the light is set 
at a height of 14 metres above MHWS and is visible from seven miles, flashing 
once every five seconds."

Mr Craven says the VLB's reliability and robustness was unexpectedly tested in 
the field a few months ago when another of the Conservancy's beacons, also 
fitted with a Vega VLB light, was knocked over and the light itself sat in the 
water for a few hours before being rescued. The harbour crew took the beacon 
back to the workshop for repairs and found it was actually still working despite 
having been under water.

VLB-44 
The VLB-44 is part of the Vega LED marine navigation light family. The optical system utilises an acrylic lens to maximise the light capture from the 
LED's which are precisely graded and placed to produce a light beam with minimum 
variation in intensity. The beacon is available in five colours, Red, Green, 
White, Yellow and Blue (on request). All colours meet the IALA chromaticity 
recommendation. The use of high efficient optics and electronics in the Vega VLB has resulted in 
energy efficiency as high as 175 Candela per Watt. The low energy needs reduce 
the solar panel and battery requirements for a stand-alone application. There 
are 15 programmable effective intensity settings, nine On/Off daylight settings and up to 246 standard flash characters. Once set, the VLB-44 provides automatic 
Schmitt Clausen correction to increase intensity for the flash Character and 
maintain the effective range of the light.