LED MANIA

Editors note: When John asked Green Mountain Traiders for a flashlight to review, he got not only the flashlight, but a discount code for Duckworks readers only! The code is ledmania and it works for anything they have for sale, even if it is already discounted. Thanks John! Be sure to read John's column below too; this led flashlight sounds incredible.

Dear Duckworkers,

I hope this finds all of you in good health and fair winds. I am now doing reviews on several very fine tools but I come to you with a tool, a life saving device, a guardian of the dark. In May, my wife gave me a present for my birthday. The gift I received was to prove as fine a gift as any given in my whole life. My wife had given me a ten LED flashlight that uses three D cell batteries. I have used this light since then and I just changed the batteries on the 11th of November. I decided to write an article about this light but when I went back to the website they no longer carried the 10 LED light but had replaced it with a better 12 LED unit. I can say better because I wrote Green Mountain Traders and wanted an explanation. They sent me the new model plus several other excellent models that could prove very handy.

The new 12 LED unit is called the Novigear SF-12 LED light. They also have a brushed aluminum Novigear ST-12 that uses D batteries but they where out of stock at the time of this writing. At the time of my birthday I had a single LED flashlight that was very handy and could stay lit for months on two AA batteries. This new SF-12 flashlight was incredibly bright and waterproof. It is a much better light than the original 10 LED light my wife purchased as a gift. That is a very hard statement to make because the ten LED light was near perfect. The new weatherproof 12 LED light is a perfect boat light. It is also small enough to fit on any type of boat.

Now I want you to know that the package claims that the light will stay lit for seven days or more. But using my favorite EverReady C cell batteries my flashlight stayed lit for much, much longer. I will not disclose the time because people will not believe what I will write. The company that I speak of and that sold these units is Green Mountain Traders and they sell many other things and of special attention is their solar panels.

Many catalog companies sell lights similar to these for two to three times what these sells for at Green Mountain Traders. I liked it because it didn‘t cost much but the safety it provides is priceless. I can attest to how sobering it is to be clinging to the bottom of a hull and having the flashlight you pull from the salty water work for maybe two minutes then give up the ghost. In 1960 as an eight year old my father, my uncle from Pennsylvania and I were in the ocean fishing early in the morning. It was my uncle’s first trip ocean fishing in our 14’ open boat. Unexpectedly a very large wave swamped our boat and then the next unusually large wave in that set capsized it. It was five AM on a Thursday when it happened.

We were in the water just outside the breakwater at Princeton Harbor at Halfmoon Bay, California for a little more than an hour. The north arm of the breakwater was being extended and the workers could not hear us over the noise of the mammoth crane picking up the giant granite boulders from the barge. A good flashlight would have been hard to miss even when the whistles of two men and an eight year old boy all wearing PFD's could not be heard. I was pulled from the water by a fisherman and his wife and they informed the Coast Guard of our peril. I felt my legs tredding water and when in the boat I thought they were moving but hypothermia had set in and for all the movement was in my minds eye. My legs were two very useless appendages.

A light, a light, my kingdom for a light! A light impervious to salt water and bright enough to be seen for miles. That s what the new LED lights provide boaters and sportsmen everywhere. The price for white LED’s is dropping fast and I hope that all who will read this will heed the message to pack at least one of these onto your boat. Green Mountain Traders has offered a 20% discount for our readers. They also have many other great LED lights including a very nice compact stainless steel multi tool with an LED flashlight as a built in tool! It is called the Novigear LT-1 and is just what some of us need when we don’t want to pack a huge multi tool.

Carabiners are the big thing now so Green Mountain Traders also carries carabiners with LED flashlights built into them. I will try to tell you how handy these really are and they come in a rainbow of bright colors. I use different key sets and I know them by their different colors so these lighted carabiners will make sure I can see the lock and key in the dark. With Christmas coming very soon these will make excellent stocking stuffers for kids, students, sportsman, sailors and your favorite boat builder.

The Pacific Ocean north of Santa Barbara is an extremely cold inhospitable place full of great danger. From my experiences I carry a mirror, flashlight, rockets, flares and a very loud whistle when I go out into the Pacific. At night without a light you would not stand a chance. You may never boat in the Pacific Ocean but any place you boat will be much safer with a great flashlight at a phenomenally low price.

I guess what I am trying to say is have great fun wherever you go boating but respect the water. So many people who should know better drown each year. I love the water and boating but I respect the water more and more each year. So please be safe so we can swap tales in the years to come.

From My Tool Crib,

John

P.S. Use the special code when checking out on their internet site. The code is ledmania It will get you an extra 20% off for reading Duckworks, have fun!