Hunter 23.5 cabin lights question

Jun 3, 2004
134
Hunter 23.5 Cape Cod, Ma.
Hunter 23.5 cabin lights......which way is on ? Clock-wise or counter-clockwise ?

How do you remove the lens to replace the bulb ?

Thanks in advance.
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Sounds like the same fixtures I have in my H26

Turn the light on and then look at the tabs in the cover plate. Force the cover about two degrees more and it falls off. You will be able to see how it fits if you look close at the space between the cover and the base. There are three tabs all of different sizes so putting it back on is a matter of lingering up the tabs
 
Jun 3, 2004
134
Hunter 23.5 Cape Cod, Ma.
Thanks RGRANGER , now can anyone tell me which direction to turn the light to the "on" position ??? I do not have a battery and need to know which direction is on or off .
 
Nov 24, 2015
84
Hunter 27 Middle River
Guess you will know positively once you install your battery, but on my 27 (as you're lying on a berth looking up) clockwise is on/ counterclockwise is off. Mine need a little shot of silicone occasionally to turn smoothly, due to the fact that they're pretty low budget parts.
 
Aug 1, 2009
10
Hunter 23.5 Various
My '95 H23.5 had the same Hella cabin lights as Doug J. Looking up, CW for on, CCW off, push up hard and go CCW some more to get the lens off. They were a real PITA, dim, power hogs and even worse, they frequently required some wiggling to get them to stay on without flickering. (OBTW, the boat was 100% freshwater up to that time, August 2015). I tried some LED festoons but still had the flickering/won't make contact problems. I tried contact cleaner(s), then gentle burnish contacts with thin cardboard, then scrape to bare metal and put a little electrical grease, etc. etc., but they simply would not turn on reliably.

This had been tolerable for overnighters, but I was prepping the boat for a 6-day trip, so I bought four of these Sea-Dog LED dome lights:
https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=327623
They were a minor pain to install but they fit in the three forward locations. I had to drill holes and the electrical connection was a pigtail, so I cut off the factory female spades and used waterproof/heat-shrink crimp connectors for that. Well worth it though - they were absolutely fabulous after those annoying Hellas. However, they were too big to fit the one aft location under the passageway/above the double berth. I got one of these to fit there, though:
https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?id=1340812
Never got a chance to install it, though. Still have the flickering Hella with LED festoons in it back there.

Long story short, in September 2015 the boat spent 24 hours anchored, unoccupied, about 2 miles off shore in Pamlico Sound in a 3-5' blow. The cabin was mostly dry but full of salt air when we loaded it on the trailer and drove home. It has been on the trailer, wrapped in heavy vinyl canvases, since then. Today I hooked up a test battery and exercised all the cabin lights - and the Sea-Dog LEDs worked flawlessly. The Hella came on after a little wiggle.
 

Doug J

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May 2, 2005
1,192
Hunter 26 Oceanside, CA
My '95 H23.5 had the same Hella cabin lights as Doug J. Looking up, CW for on, CCW off, push up hard and go CCW some more to get the lens off. They were a real PITA, dim, power hogs and even worse, they frequently required some wiggling to get them to stay on without flickering. (OBTW, the boat was 100% freshwater up to that time, August 2015). I tried some LED festoons but still had the flickering/won't make contact problems. I tried contact cleaner(s), then gentle burnish contacts with thin cardboard, then scrape to bare metal and put a little electrical grease, etc. etc., but they simply would not turn on reliably.
Too bad you had so much trouble with yours. Sounds like you did everything possible to get them to work right. The only thing I can think of is perhaps you didn't install the correct festoons. Some look like they should fit, but are slightly too short. I used a digital caliper to measure the old to new, making sure they were the correct size. Mine have worked perfectly. I upgraded all to festoon LED's, very low power consumption, very bright. Better than the old incandescent festoons. I bought the bulbs from Marinebeam, good products, good prices. I like these light fixtures very much, I think their quality is better than some of the new fixtures I see being sold. I like how the entire fixture glows with light - works for me!
 
Jun 2, 2004
649
Hunter 23.5 Calgary, Canada
Strange, my 1995 H23.5 doesn't have these twist on-off lights. There is an on/off rocker switch, and they have wedge connection bulbs, not festoon. I replaced them all with Marinebeam LEDs a few years ago.