My first thought on reading about the idea of being all lit up at night was of the USS JOHN F KENNEDY/USS BELKNAP collision some years ago. It was a calm night in the Mediterranean, and the cruiser BELKNAP (off the port bow of the carrier) was given a change of station order. The OOD on the cruiser got confused by the lights of the carrier (a VERY lit up ship when conducting night flight ops) and ended up running his ship under the port fight deck overhang of the carrier. The impact sheared off the top of the BELKNAP's superstructure and started a huge fire as hundreds of gallons of pressurized jet fuel rained down her stacks as she, in turn, sheared off the carrier's external flight deck fuel piping in her passage under the overhang - eight dead and a ship nearly lost and out of commission for years. As a result of this debacle and an earlier sinking of The USS FRANK KNOX by HMAS MELBOURNE, the Navy undertook a massive relighting effort of its carriers to include more easily distinguishable navigation lights. They even put a mast up forward of the island structure to get the forward masthead light to a place where it had some reasonable separation from the aft masthead light. Remember the Navy is exempted by the Secretary of the Navy from nav lighting requirements of the COLREGS wherever it is "not practicable" to institute them. I guess at that point conforming with the law became "practicable." My own prescription for staying out of trouble when operating the three destroyers I served in at night with a carrier was to keep a close eye on the radar because, like cruise ships (which I often encounter to this day from the darkened bridges of Navy destroyers), the aspect of carriers were almost impossible to figure out based solely on the observation of their lights. My second thought on reading about the idea of being all lit up at night was of my own CALYPSO operating in San Diego harbor at night (often in the vicinity of Navy ships) and nowadays in St Andrew Bay in the Panama City area during events like Fourth of July fireworks. While operating in the vicinity of larger vessels at night, I tend to 1) get well out of their way while watching the radar, 2) establish radio contact, even if only a securite call announcing me and the nearest nav aid, 3) turning on bright cabin lights if I get the least bit concerned about their not seeing me. While operating anywhere near a significant number of smaller vessels at night (and ESPECIALLY during holiday drinking times), I just light the heck out of the boat with as many lights as I can get burning. Having been nearly run down during the "scatter" at the end of a fireworks display and saved at the last second by my searchlight in the other boater's eyes (yes, I admit it, and it was damned necessary at the instant), I now feel that the average boater's night operating abilities and near total lack of situational awareness require me to be well lighted when operating around the "average boater" at night. Call it defensive driving. I have since found a much less crowded area to take my family to see the fireworks. Thus, I am of two minds about this topic. 1) Remain properly darkened with bright nav lights as long as you are reasonably sure the other vessels can see you and understand your aspect. I highly value my still good night vision with a good pair of 7X50 binocs, but when threatened at night in my own small boat, just watch me light up! Brilliantly, Rich Gano CALYPSO (GB42-295) Homeport Panama City I'd rather be cruisin'