I am looking for a 6 volt battery operated anchor light that can be raised up the mast with a halyard. My original anchor light i believe has a short in it somewhere. I have found one on-line but it was in the U.K. and expensive. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Anchor light
- Thread starter Winsome23
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I just fixed the anchor light on my O'Day 222 last week. It hadn't worked for a few years. I also had a steaming light which I had installed on my new mast years ago when I lost the original mast. I knew that there was a broken wire inside the mast that fed the steaming light, and I'm not sure how it got broken. Maybe it got broke from my internal halyards. Anyway, I removed it along with the duplex wire that fed this light. The mast light is pretty simple to work on and it's worth fixing. What I did was lay my mast on something at waist height, and a small work bench outside, and took the mast light cap off and cleaned the metal parts including the bulb metal with my Dremel Tool and rotary brush. I took the connector off the wire at the base of the mast and checked the wires with an Ohms meter for continuity between both wires tied together at the top of the mast. Then I hooked the light up and attached a battery charger to the wires at the bottom of the mast and got the light going. A good volt meter will eliminate a lot of trouble spots in an electric circuit. In most cases you either have a bad connection which can be at the connector, receptacle, or the light itself. You may have a problem in the receptacle and the plug. We're only talking about two wires coming from a breaker or switch on your panel, one of them being a ground wire. This should be easy to fix. I went out and bought a new Perko receptacle with the plug. My advice to you is fix the existing light. If the wire in the mast needs to be replaced, you only need to remove the Tabernacle and the mast cap to get at the wire. Just tie a string to the wire at the bottom of the mast and pull the wire out the top, if the wire is bad. My wire was still in good shape. I'm almost certain that your electric problem is either in the receptacle or the plug. If you're not too knowledgeable about electric circuits, get a hold of someone who is, and ask him to help you. It's worth fixing. If the wire needs replacing, this would be an excellent time to run a coax cable up the mast for an aerial if you don't already have one. Just mount your Windex on a 12" bracket so it doesn't interfere with the aerial. The coax can be taped to the mast wire so it doesn't flop around in the mast. Any volt/Ohms meter will find the problem for you, real quick.
Joe
There is a company in New Jersey (I think?) that make these, they are self-contained units, 6-volt lantern battery powered. Cost though is in the neighborhood of $75-100.00!
I think the brand used to be "QUEST", now is different, but it is really the same company that used to make it. (Original company was sold, the former owners decided to re-introduce some of their Marine products a few years ago under the name of their new company.)
C.G. Edwards Co. Inc in South Boston used to sell these, I think they still do. Their web-site is www.cgedwards.com I used to work at C.G. Edwards and I've sent an e-mail to their web sales guy to get more info since the light is not on their web site (not everything they sell is on-line!) He should get back to me tomorrow!
The lamps are American made as far as I know?
I think the brand used to be "QUEST", now is different, but it is really the same company that used to make it. (Original company was sold, the former owners decided to re-introduce some of their Marine products a few years ago under the name of their new company.)
C.G. Edwards Co. Inc in South Boston used to sell these, I think they still do. Their web-site is www.cgedwards.com I used to work at C.G. Edwards and I've sent an e-mail to their web sales guy to get more info since the light is not on their web site (not everything they sell is on-line!) He should get back to me tomorrow!
The lamps are American made as far as I know?
Try this link for a Davis mega light and just haul it up with a halyard and an extension cord
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|65136|65391|729019&id=7961
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|65136|65391|729019&id=7961
Thanks for all the help. After further inspection i found a bad connection at the mast. She works like a dream now! Saved me from spending 100 dollars or more on a new light. Thanks again!
I'm glad that I was able to be of some help in this. I too found a bad connection in the light at the top of my mast, along with a badly corroded deck receptacle which I replaced. My radio had a bad connection in the small in-line fuse holder. In most cases, these problems can be found with a volt/ohms meter, and can be cured with a Dremel Tool with an assortment of small wire brushes. Salt air has a way of turning metal contacts to a green color that restricts the flow of current.
Smooth Sailing!
Joe
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