Considering pretty much all boats have red cabin lights fitted for night sailing and our tablets running Android use apps like Twilight to dim then at night, which also tint the screen red, I think red is the right colour.
Inevitably the red lights on a boat will affect the crew's ability to see port side lights a bit but at least it's only one primary colour so the blue and green sensors in our eyes are unaffected and we retain at least 2/3 of our night vision. If you have lights of other colours on board then your night vision will be affected across the whole spectrum.
It's a real annoyance that some instrument companies use other colours but generally red is the standard night lighting at sea.
Fun fact: sailors (including but not limited to pirates) were often portrayed with an eye patch. generally they actually had two eyes and the guy with the eye patch was the navigator. The eye patch they wore was so that they could retain night vision while working on the chart under candle light. On deck they would lift it up and still have night vision in one eye which had been covered. Try it, it still works and is a more important technique than ever now that we all have tablets and laptops at the chart take.
Our pypilot is mounted outside at the helm so unfortunately an eye patch doesn't help. It lights up the whole cockpit.
Inevitably the red lights on a boat will affect the crew's ability to see port side lights a bit but at least it's only one primary colour so the blue and green sensors in our eyes are unaffected and we retain at least 2/3 of our night vision. If you have lights of other colours on board then your night vision will be affected across the whole spectrum.
It's a real annoyance that some instrument companies use other colours but generally red is the standard night lighting at sea.
Fun fact: sailors (including but not limited to pirates) were often portrayed with an eye patch. generally they actually had two eyes and the guy with the eye patch was the navigator. The eye patch they wore was so that they could retain night vision while working on the chart under candle light. On deck they would lift it up and still have night vision in one eye which had been covered. Try it, it still works and is a more important technique than ever now that we all have tablets and laptops at the chart take.
Our pypilot is mounted outside at the helm so unfortunately an eye patch doesn't help. It lights up the whole cockpit.