Hmmm- that's pretty cool. It probably wouldn't be very visible to passing boaters but would be great to stake out your tent so you don't trip over the guylines at night! It also would make a great painter as you said.

This reminds me of a story- I was coming across Pilsbury Sound between St. Thomas and St. John one night and saw a vessel pass with three white lights on the masthead. That should mean they are towing a vessel, but I saw no lights behind in tow. I figured he forgot to turn off the masthead lights after dropping off his load, but I decided to be safe and sit and wait it out. Suddenly St. Thomas just disappeared. It looked like there was a power outage, which is very often the case- all of a sudden the lights just disappeared. After adjusting my eyes a bit I realized that a barge was passing in front of me, with not one single light on it. Thank goodness I decided to play it safe. Had I passed astern of the tow vessel I would have either hit the tow line or been plowed over by the vessel in tow or both!

By the way, although this happened in a small powerboat, it makes a good point that if you're on the water in any craft you need to be familiar with navigational rules... day or night!