I’ve made some improvements to the system. The AY-UP lights worked really well, a little to well and I was getting too much glare back off the sail. So I’ve gone to 1 Intermediate light set on top of the helmet ,which lets me see about 40m ahead .It helps me avoid the wildlife sleeping on the water. The other problem with sailing at night was that I would get confused on where I was in the inlet, no reference point to aim at. The small LED lights along the bank solve this problem. The 10mm LED,s are easily seen and its just follow the dots all the way down the course, get to the end,jybe and aim for the green one up the other end. You can see them up to 2km away. 8 lights+ batteries all for under $50 just make sure the sealant that you use won’t corrode the wires
The assembled light ready to place in the hose and seal 
The lights all finished and ready to go, more waterproof than a Garmin 
The tape is a little crude but I didn,t want to make too much stuff in case it didn,t work
There are two lights in this photo,its just not a good camera for taking night shots without the flash. The viewing angle of these lights is quite narrow which doesn,t matter once your on the course.
Great stuff Kato but my eye sight must be failing me on that last shot Cannot see any lights. You 're a mad bugger for sailing at night though
I can see 'em!
Pretty impressive as I know just how far those two points are from the camera.
On the other hand how much sand was in the air when the photo was taken? As on the nights with speedsailing wind, that could cut down their visibility a wee bit.
Only one way to find out! 
Good to see the night-sailing's still on your mind though - I'm still planning on putting together my own DIY LED-headlight rig, but too many other projects on my hands right now which are pulling rank over that one.
Cheers!
By the way - what's the stuff you've filled the garden hose with to seal the light, wire, etc in place?
'Reason being one of the issues I've got with the DIY LED-headlight rig is sealing the casing with something that won't melt or burst into flames from all the heat put out by the LED (I'm hoping I won't have to hook it up to a heat-sink to cater for this as I want to keep things as light and non-metallic as possible).
The stuff in the garden hose looks a bit rubbery - if the sealant can do the above and add a little impact resistance to the finished product as well, so much the better!
Cripes Waterboy, you running a super ultrabright burn your eyes out LED or something?
Most LEDs run really cool, it's only once you start going close to a watt that you need heatsinks.
A 1 watt LED is massively bright!
Salty,look half way up from the bottom and 1/3 in from each end and its the camera not you eyes. Al, the sealant that i use is Hardies joint sealant, very flexible and sticks to most things. Good luck on making your lights, but it might be cheaper in the long run to buy the AY-UP,s. They are water proof to 5 m which would help ya as your get dragged under by that kite of yours
Neb' - yup, ~ 1W LED's is the idea; you need to be able to see a fair way down the strip (e.g. ~50m) to speedsail with a fair amount of safety, and Kato's AY-UP rig did the job nicely (which runs 1W LED's).
I'm thinking of having 2 1W LED's with medium-wide beam lenses (one angled slighty to the right, the other to the left), and another 1W LED with narrow beam pointed straight down the middle (although I may have to add a second one of these if the beam turns out to be a bit too narrow).
Cheers Craig! Getting an AY-UP rig would certainly be the easy way to do it, but the truth is I'm having an absolute ball figuring out how to do it from scratch, and by doing so, I've actually learn't a fair bit along the way; not a bad thing!
