Attwood 5358-12-7 All-Round Anti-Glare Boat Light

The Attwood all-round fold-down anti-glare light is one of those pieces of gear that just works, night after night. It's a white, 360-degree light on a 12-inch black plastic pole, and it's rated to be seen up to 2 nautical miles out. That covers boats up to 39.4 feet, or 12 meters if you think in metric. On most powerboats it rides at the stern as your all-round white light. On a boat sitting at anchor, it's your anchor light. Simple job, done right.

What sets this one apart from a plain pole light is the anti-glare lens. If you've ever run at night with a bright white light sitting a couple feet behind your head, you know the problem. It wrecks your night vision and throws a haze across the water right where you're trying to look. The anti-glare lens on this Attwood cuts that reflection back toward the helm, so the beam goes out and up where other boats can see it, not into your eyes. It's a small thing that makes a long night run a lot easier.

The fold-down design is the other reason people keep buying these. The 12-inch pole hinges down flat against its base when you don't need it. That means you're not snagging lines on it, not knocking it with a cooler, and you're not leaving a tall pole standing up while the boat's on the trailer or under a cover. Flip it up when the sun goes down, fold it flat when you're back at the dock.

Mounting is straightforward. The light uses a composite cam-lock base, and it ships set up for horizontal mounting with the included adaptor. The cam lock lets you pull the pole out entirely if you'd rather stow it in a locker between trips. A quick word from the folks who've rigged a lot of these: on curved rails or contoured gunwales, the horizontal adaptor sometimes wants a shim or a fresh set of holes to sit dead flat. Take a minute to get the base solid before you final-torque the screws. A light that wiggles at speed is a light that eventually cracks at the pivot.

Speaking of speed. That 12-inch plastic pole is light, and it flexes a bit when you're really moving on a center console. For most boats at cruising and idle speeds it's a non-issue, and it's exactly what you want at anchor or trolling. If you run wide-open a lot and want zero flex, that's worth knowing going in. Same goes for the cam-lock base on aluminum boats. Vibration is hard on plastic, so a lot of owners drop a rubber washer under the base to soak it up. Cheap insurance.

The bulb is a 9-watt wedge-base incandescent, and it runs on standard 12-volt boat power. Incandescent light is warm and easy on the eyes, and replacement bulbs are cheap and available just about anywhere. Some owners swap in an LED wedge bulb to cut the current draw and stretch bulb life, especially if they leave the anchor light on all night. If you go that route, just check the polarity on the LED, since a lot of them only fire one way. Either bulb drops straight into the same socket.

Attwood builds this housing to live outside. The parts are corrosion and water resistant, which is the bare minimum for anything that sits on a boat year-round. That said, salt is salt. If you run in salt water, give the fold-down hinge and the cam lock a rinse now and then. Salt crust is the number one reason these stop folding flat, and a 30-second rinse with the dock hose keeps the mechanism happy for years.

Who's this for? Anglers and cruisers on boats up to about 39 feet who want a proper all-round white light that stows out of the way. It's a great fit as a stern light on a runabout, an anchor light on a cuddy, or the all-round white on a small power cruiser. Sailors, keep in mind an all-round white is only part of your picture. Depending on your rig and length, you'll pair it with the right sidelights and a masthead or stern light to match the required light configuration for your boat. Match your lights to your vessel and how you run her, and you're set.

For more than a hundred years Attwood has built the small, unglamorous parts that keep boats legal and safe after dark. This light is a good example. It's not fancy. It just puts a clean, visible, glare-free white light where the rules say it needs to be, and it gets out of your way when the sun comes up.