Broken weld on bow light.

[Terry]

The weld holding the bow light broke when the lake levels dropped last year resulting in the bow light hitting the dock and breaking. I have a replacement bracket to hold the light in place but need to rewire the connection. Does anyone know where the wiring feeds from the light through the pulpit? Do I need to remove the pulpit to get to it or is there an access panel?

 

[SSmith]

Bow light

I rewired the bow light on our 1987 C22, Deadline, a year ago. I used the replacement bracket-and-light combo from Catalina Direct. The hardest part of the job by far was fishing the wires through. I had pulled the old wiring out, thinking it would be easy to fish the new wires through. Wrong. If at all possible, use the existing wiring. If that's shot, bind the new wires to the old ones and pull them through that way. From the hole on the bow pulpit, they go to the first stanchion on the starboard side. There's a frustratingly small hole that connects the two pieces. From there, the wires exit the bottom of the stanchion inside the hull. Access is through a round plastic panel inside the anchor locker. That's where the wires make their connection. Good luck.

 

[SSmith]

Bow light 2

I forgot to mention this. The hole is too small for a fish tape. What finally worked for me was a length of stiff (but flexible) wire. I worked that through, then attached the wiring to it at the light mount hole and pulled it through from the anchor locker.

 

[Terry]

Thank you.

Thanks for the info on the bow light rewire. I had an idea that the wire passed through that stanchion into the anchor locker but didn't want to start unscrewing the panel until I had more info. The boat is a 1986. We have the white wire coming through the tiny hole in the pulpit but the black wire has vanished into the hole. Pulling it through attached to a fine, flexible wire attached to the new wire sounds like it might work. What size wire did you use? It looks like #16 might do it.

 

[SSmith]

Wire

I think that's right. I found wire at a home-improvement place that matched the original. Seems like it also was marked for exterior use, for corrosion resistance.

 

[Terry]

All done!

Followed your instructions which were very good. The only place we got confused was gaining access to the wire through the anchor locker. We loosened the 6 screws holding the round framing against the bulkhead and then found that all it took was a screwdriver to pop the plastic cover off without removing the frame. We did install the bracket on top of the pulpit rather than under to give more clearance. Since our access to the boat is from a right angle dock we have to board at the bow. That's why the pulpit is so close to the dock. Thanks again for your help.