Summary of Available LED Navigation Lights

I have already replaced the mast-mounted lighting with MarineBeam units - these are Hella-esque designs, made in China.  Am also considering replacing the tired OE Aqua Signal 25 port starboard and stern running lights with LED.   This would reduce power consumption from 30w to as low as 4.5 watts.

Unfortunately Aqua Signal does not make a direct LED replacement for the 25 series.  They have two series' (33 and 34 IIRC)  with very different proportions that have earned a few poor user ratings for quality so I ruled those out.   They do have a replacement for their series 40 which has the best specs of the lot but is, IMO, too large for Windstar.  At $200US each, they are expensive as well.

Hella makes (in New Zealand!) what appears to be very nice product, with excellent specs.  A bit larger than the AS 25, they are at least close in size, though still expensive at US$159.

Marinebeam offer what appear to be Hella tributes, made in China, at lower prices.   The two units I ordered for the mast were of decent quality (one had a significant cosmetic defect and I installed it anyway, after having been credited the purchase price.   Marinebeam was easy to deal with.)    They also offer an economy series, which is basically a series 25 clone with their replacement 3.2 watt bulb.  Those replacement bulbs are the cheapest option, and if ordered in the appropriate colour, (red and green) will significantly improve visible range to 2nm.

Nearly as cheap as LED bulbs alone are the Victory fixtures.  Victory is the house brand of a Canadian distributor in Vancouver.  I had a quick look at these a few weeks back, and noticed that the light sources were simple, indicator light style LEDs.   Victory publishes no specs at all online so I am not sure what the range or power consumption would be, but they are very inexpensive, made in China, probably by convicts.

I found it interesting that the Aqua Signal 25 is rated for 2nm visbility in white, and the red and green lights are rated  only 1nm, due to the white lamp being filtered by the coloured lens.   Appropriately-coloured LED sources do not suffer from this output reduction and there is no difference in claimed visibility between the different colours.   This is good to know if buying LED replacement bulbs -  buy the correct colour, not white!

Here is a summary of the options available, sorry the links won't work.   Just google.  I included the AS 25 as a benchmark and colour-coded the specs in comparison.  Too bad there isn't a direct LED retrofit with sealed optics and COB, but at least there are a range of options.