New Hunter arch panel

[jaysweet]

My 2005 Hunter 306 came with a plastic console that screws to the underside of the rather substantial fixed stainless arch. The console currently has 2 speakers, a light and a switch for the light. Six years ago, I attached a box with a volume control so I could turn down the music from the cockpit, and I also tried to waterproof the backside of the speakers with some plastic bowls, both of which were pretty much failures.

Anyway, I've just bought a big old hunk of solid teak to replace the plastic console. I plan to just put some LED lights and a switch up there. My onboard music now is pretty much bluetooth speakers now, so I was thinking about building in some sort of small shelf to secure a portable bluetooth speaker up there, where it's pointed right at the helm. So here's my question: If all I want to do is to power the LED lights, what type of waterproof connector can I use up there so I can unplug the whole thing to take it down and re-finish, replace LEDs, etc. in the future? I'm looking for a recommendation for a particular bit of gear, please! Thanks.

 

[cagreen75]

Do a search online for waterproof connectors. There are many types out there and you will need some special crimping pliers for most of them. I use Deutsch connectors. They are expensive but they are very high quality and very reliable.

 

[jaysweet]

Do a search online for waterproof connectors. There are many types out there and you will need some special crimping pliers for most of them. I use Deutsch connectors. They are expensive but they are very high quality and very reliable.

I can do that. So far, nothing I see on the major marine sites looks suitable. There's also the issue of what the products say they'll do, vs. how well they work in practice. I was hoping someone had experience. Maybe the connectors people use for solar panels?

 

[senang]

You will find many models of waterproof connectors male and female when searching on car & lorry websites. All 12V and designed to be exposed to soaking.

 

[SailorShaggy]

environmentally sealed is another buzzword to search for. a mil-spec circular may be your best bet.

 

[jaysweet]

Here's an update on the new arch panel project (maybe console is a better term?). So what was I starting with? The following hideously ugly piece of... stuff:

Most of this ugliness is Hunter's fault, but the large carbuncle on the left (a speaker volume control) was my brilliant idea in around 2016. I thought it was important to be able to turn down the stereo volume when at the helm, say if a call came in over the VHF, or if I wanted to talk to an actual person in close proximity. The execution of this idea was less than ideal. The old console was attached with a pair of steel brackets which (as it turns out) hung down below the level of the arch tubing:

This wouldn't work for a teak console which needs to be flush with the tubing, so I had to modify the brackets, which involved tapping new holes, shortening them vertically (some metal bending) and trimming them horizontally. Here are the modified brackets before trimming off the horizontal tabs:

and here they are mounted to the arch:

 

[jaysweet]

So I bought a couple of hunks of pretty expensive solid teak, just a bit over 1" thick (true), and maybe 8.5" wide and (?) maybe 30" or so long. I think they were maybe $125 each, for inquiring minds. The guy at Exotic Lumber in Annapolis told me that they soon wouldn't be able to import teak at all (no further information on that last bit.) One became a new companionway step, and the other became the new arch console. I rounded over the edge with a router (a first for me), rounded the corners off manually, and sunk 2" holes partway through the board for the lights:

This is with a couple of coats of oil based Minwax Spar Urethane. After trial fitting to the arch, I fit the end-pieces, to keep the birds out (a huge problem with the old console):


and then attached them permanently and sealed with spar urethane:

 

[jaysweet]

Here are the Hella Courtesy Lamps (back side), which look to be mostly waterproof (IP67) and a pretty standard insert diameter (2") for purposes of future proofing:

I chose the courtesy lamps because they were a bit less bright than their EuroLED lights. They have a 216 stainless bezel, which I hope will hold up. I had been planning to mount them with regular phillips head screws (as you see in the previous posting), before a family member pointed out how fugly this looked. I managed to find some stupidly expensive stainless thumb screws on McMaster-Carr which looked somewhat better. Here's the finished product (not on the boat yet):

and a light-check: