26' wiring to bow Nav Light 1986 sloop

C

captined

.
Mar 16, 2011
13
Oday 22 1977 Bayville NJ
Hi: Stern light -works / Bow Nav light works with out side voltage -not with boat power
Has Bk & Dark Gray 18 gage supply to light - coming up thru Bow Stanchion
Power Supply from Breaker in cabin is 12 gag RED e with Fuse
where would the reducer to 18 gage be ?????
Thanks ed
 
Timm R Oday25

Timm R Oday25

.
Mar 2, 2019
435
Oday 25 Milwaukee
Welcome , your messge is a little confusing . I'm not entirely sure what side voltage is .
When most of us brought our new to us boats home , one of the first things we were forced to do was make a comprehensive list of what needed attention.
The wiring in our Oday 25 was questionable to say the least. I removed as much as I could and started from scratch
Several reasons : The first being ,I wanted it to be safe . 2) I needed to know how it was done. 3) A lot more circuits were to be added .
When I rewired our boat ,tinned wire was used as it has much less chances of corroding .
 
jssailem

jssailem

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Oct 22, 2014
21,108
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Welcome back @captined last time we heard from you was in 2012. Did you get the bimini figured out?
There is no “reducer”. There may be wire tied together some where along the system. There may be a connector (butt connector, euro connector, even wire nut).
You need to decide if the 18 gauge is adequate for the wire run from the power source to the light and back. A 5 watt bulb will need 1/2 amp at 12 volts to power the light properly. Check your wire requirements for the lamp.

I prefer to use 16 AWG wire for DC light runs. But that is just my thoughts.
 
capta

capta

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Jun 4, 2009
4,773
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
If you haven't already done so, replace incandescent bulbs with LED sealed lights (not just bulbs) with a decent heatsink on the back. Then you can run new #16 wire to them and just forget about the old stuff, if you cannot remove it easily. Most likely wire that old has at least a couple of places where the wire is corroded.
 
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C

captined

.
Mar 16, 2011
13
Oday 22 1977 Bayville NJ
Timm R Oday25 said:
Welcome , your messge is a little confusing . I'm not entirely sure what side voltage is .
When most of us brought our new to us boats home , one of the first things we were forced to do was make a comprehensive list of what needed attention.
The wiring in our Oday 25 was questionable to say the least. I removed as much as I could and started from scratch
Several reasons : The first being ,I wanted it to be safe . 2) I needed to know how it was done. 3) A lot more circuits were to be added .
When I rewired our boat ,tinned wire was used as it has much less chances of corroding .
Click to expand
Tim: Used an external power supply to
test Bow light-- which worked
 
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RoyS

RoyS

.
Jun 3, 2012
1,742
Hunter 33 Steamboat Wharf, Hull, MA
Most boat builders ran three wires out from the panel for the cabin lights and the bow light. The positive wire to the bow light was unbroken and run direct. The other two wires were spliced at every cabin light running forward with one positive and the other negative. When the bow light stops working it is usually caused by a bad splice on the common negative wire jumping through every cabin light and shared by the bow light. You can either check and repair each cabin light connection or, better still, run a new dedicated pair of, say, 16 Gauge boat cable direct and exclusively for the bow light.
 
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P

Project_Mayhem

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Sep 24, 2018
2,603
O'Day 25 Chicago
I believe my O'Day 25 has 16 awg tinned wiring. I think black was positive and white was negative. I can double check later this week if needed
 
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