Do I need to replace these lights?

During the break from the bitter cold I made it to the boat today. 44 and Sunny. Nice day to spend on our new C30, looking things over and making plans for spring upgrades.

This is a 93 so I was surprised how bad the steaming/deck and anchor lights looked. I've seen crazed lenses but never something this bad.
I have new Marinebeam lights picked out.

 

I'm pretty sure those are the Aqua Signal series 25 fixtures. Mine looked just as bad so your observations are most likely brand specific. Many years ago I changed the original bulbs with LED bulbs from Dr. LED. Quote from the manufacturer: This "fat" festoon LED bulb is specially designed for aqua signal series 25 port and starboard lights. They were expensive but were much more visible than the original ones. I'm sure this will lead to a discussion of them not being compliant. Make sure you use the appropriately colored LED bulbs because white ones will not do the trick. Change your lens or the entire fixture.

 

not bad for 20 years in the sun. They are fine still let the light out don't they? OTOH modern LED lamps use 1/10th the energy and should last forever, well except the plastic might craze.

 

Yep, they have seen a lot of UV. Go with the marinebeam replacements.

 

The headlight restoration product from Turtle Wax does amazing work on that type of clouding.

 

But they have probably lost 25% of their light transmission capability.

 

I was planning to change them out to LED while the mast was down, from being transported, anyway.
I ordered the LED steaming/deck light and the LED Anchor/Nav/Strobe light from Marine Beam. Both are USCG approved. I plan to rewire the mast at the same time.

These lights did work during the sea trial but no way I would scrimp and reuse them the way they look up close. The plastic feels like it melted and bubbled up.

 

You were surprised because it's a '93? You realize that was 25 years ago? Time flies!

 

I was very happy replacing my anchor light with the Marinebeam tri-light. Aligning the thing so that the green / red sectors were right was difficult because the bulb itself is not marked, but I found that putting a test battery on it at dusk, then adjusting with the actual light on made it easier to align with the mast. I noticed in your left picture that the wiring seems to run in past the unused sheaves. Seems that this would foul if you ever wanted to use that side, or is that part of your re-wiring?

 

Indeed, only a sailor would think that a 90s vehicle was 'newer'.

 

I did this very same project last spring. New anchor, steaming and deck light LEDS. Polished deck and steaming lenses. Replaced anchor light fixture. Ran new 16ga cables to the lights per recommendations here. Way more wire diameter than needed for the loads but structurally stronger. A PO had the deck and steaming lights wired to the same switch. I isolated the deck light on one switch and put the anchor and streaming lights on a DPDT switch so one or the other could be turned on, not both.
Pay good attention to sealing the deck thru hole to prevent water damage.

 

Truer words.....

 

The black wire in that photo comes out of the aluminum block which is the base for the wind transducer. It goes outside of the masthead casting into a hole in the casting near the internal wiring conduit. The anchor light wire goes through the support pipe into the casting the same way so they both should stay clear of halyards.
The white VHF coax should probably be run better. There isn't a VHF antennae so it is just zipped there. The thin line in the photo is a messenger line. I will use it to pull the 4th halyard and then it will be out of the way.
Thanks for the tip on aligning the tri-light.

Actually not surprised by it being a 93, after all I bought it. I was just surprised when I saw the opaque bubbled finish of the lenses on both lights. I've seen older boats with lights in better condition. Maybe they all have had the lenses replaced.

Is that why we call them good old boats?

 

The Marinebeam instructions are lacking. It's true that the bulb isn't marked for alignment, but, if I remember correctly, there is a notch in the base that tells you how to align the bulb. I'd have to look for it again to refresh my memory. There is also a micro-adjustment to get the base aligned in case the screw holes are off for mounting the base. I know this all probably doesn't make sense and the instructions are absolutely NO HELP ... when you study the fixture, you will probably see what I mean.

 

I love MaineBeam and have probably a dozen of their products. But none of them came with any documentation.

 

LOL after I posted that last post, I realize that it has been several months since I visited their site. So a quick click, and to my surprise I find BlueJ's masttop adorning the page for the smart masthead bulb.

 

The cheque is in the mail?

 

@Scott T-Bird
You have until April to refresh your memory. I knew you had already installed one so I figured I can check yours and tap your brain when I get ready to install mine.

 

I replaced my 1996 mast running light this past Spring. The bulb was not making good contact due to corrosion and the lens looked like the above picture. These things never break down at a convenient time.

 

The tri-function anchor light is really a cool product. Now that I have explained to Rich how it works, he shouldn't give you a hard time about it. First he told me "your anchor light doesn't work" then he said I would need to run more wires up the mast for it. Just remember that the anchor light has a photo cell that over-rides the switch if you test it out in daylight. Rich didn't quite believe me that you flip the switch twice to get tri-color, then again to get SOS. He said "is it really that smart?" A little smarter than Rich, I'm guessing.