Night paddling

This is probably a stupid question but I'll ask anyway.
Hs anyone found a lightning solution that doesn't involve temporary loss of night vision each time the light crosses line of vision?
I do wear a head lamp but find it increasingly to be a pain in the arse. Every time my eye line crosses the beam , I geta temporary loss of night vision which is almost worse than no light at all.
Is there an alternative out there or is a matter of no light and adjusting? Local harbour by laws dictate a light of some description ( I can easliy attach something to my PFD) but that won't necessarily help vision issues.
Thanks for any help

Jazzman, For pre dawn paddling - I use a 360 degree light attached to a mast (~500mm height) with a base plate mounted in the rudder housing. I have other masts set up to handle my video camera...all my skis are set up with the same mounting plate - so everything is interchangeable.

Hi Simon,
Awesome setup, very neat and no doubt super effective.
just a quick question that I cant work out.
looking at picture 'light-3' I assume that the bolt going into the vertical tube is to clamp the light/camera shaft in place, once it has been slid in?
How then do you put the plastic cover back on?
Alternately, if you put the cover on first, and line it up with the tube, how do you get to the bolt to tighten it?
What am I missing?
Thanks
Bruce

I attach my rear (red) bike light onto the back of my cap. It flashes red, doesn't affect night vision and is easy to attach. It doesn't comply with any boating regulation in the known universe, but it must be better than nothing.

Bruce, the inspection cap has a hole (oval shape - to accomodate all my skis) as the mounting position is not in the exact same position from one ski to the next - due to shape of each model ski. Simply slide the inspection cap up the mast to do up the bolt then slide back - as the hole is not centre (the rudder is) you can't do up the thread on the cap - So I removed the thread on the cap side so it becomes a friction fit rather than thread fit - although I can still use a seperate standard thread cap if I wish too - either way it doesn't need to be waterproof in that area. Also, I have spectra line running up the inside of the mast attaching to the video camera and clipping to the rudder tiller arm - should anything fail.

I just use a light in my PFD, the mast inserts into a foam roll which then sits inside my PFDs rear water bladder holder. This way you can reach it to turn it on and off, conforms with maritime regulations (being able to be seen 360 degrees, white light a metre off the deck) and doesn't blind me because it is behind me but throws off enough light so that I can see what I'm doing. If you fall out the light is with you which is a good thing too.

Simon , Greg
Thank you both very much for taking the time to reply and for the photos explaining what you do. Really helpful and now I'm some some very good ideas to play with.
Thanks again
Kevin