I have docking lights on my boat and they work great. There's just one problem....it's illegal to use them as running lights. Here's how I know.
One night fog was rising from the water and I couldn't see anything. We had used a spotlight to try and find our way but it didn't do the job. I turned on my docking lights and could see well and travel safely. Nobody had mentioned in the TWRA boating handbook that it was illegal to use them as running lights.
I was meeting another boat and my docking lights didn't have a dimmer on them. Suddenly, the other boat lit up with blue flashing lights and a TWRA officer so mad his face was glowing. He started yelling at me to turn off my f 'ing running lights or he would write me a $500 ticket right then. I tried to explain that I was sorry; that I didn't know they were illegal. He said that my lights had blinded him and threatened that if I said another word he would write the ticket right then. I just sat there and he spun his boat around and took off.
I called TWRA the next day and raised some hell of my own and told them that I was on Cherokee Lake when in the incident happened; gave them the date and time of night. The TWRA officer didn't give his name and that's the only way I had of identifying him. I told them that if it was illegal to run with docking lights on they needed to let the public know. Their response was that they didn't know why boatmakers ever started putting them on boats; that they were illegal. The next year the information about the docking lights was in the boating handbook for the first time.