Wiring

[Merlin Clark]

One of the joys of antique boat ownership- I went to wire a Hella fan (new old stock I've been carrying around forever) and couldn't bring myself to hook into the ugly mess I've been avoiding.
I don't know if there was any original electrics beside the panel and a couple of buss bars left on the boat when I started rewiring on Friday. It looked like someone had wired the boat with a box of scraps. The stern light had a piece of #8 that was wire nutted to a piece of #12. The bilge pump sits abut 2.5 feet below and 2.5 feet behind the power panel and had 2 splices in the hot wire. I found wire nuts, twisted and taped splices and mostly butt connectors. Crazy mess.
No more, now it's good clean runs from the bow to the stern. Almost done. Still have the radios and bilge pump and then tie everything up nice and neat.

 

[Tom Hoffman]

I understand what you mean. My American had a very similar wiring situation. My mast had no lights but a motoring light, and it didn't work. One of the guys I met through the American owners site casually mentioned that he had just had spreader lights installed on his 42' Hunter Center Cockpit boat. I asked him what he meant. He told me that on a dark night, it was really nice to be able to turn them on and they shine down on the deck. So he can see to move about the boat.

I took his suggestion to heart and when we started to wire the mast this spring, I installed these.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-...ory=TRUCK&Page2Disp=/specs/strb-4w.htm#photos

I installed one on each spreader and one on the front of the mast for a steaming light.

They can either be solid on or strobe. We wired them so they function with two switches. One for on and one for strobe.

When we were on the Mississippi, I definitely wanted to be seen by the barge traffic at night.

Believe me when you flip the switch for all three on strobe function, you can really be seen. They come in White, Red, or yellow. All mine are white.

The spreader lights really light up the deck at night too. It was not easy getting the wires out into the spreader, but it was worth it.

I have since converted all my lights to leds. They are really bright and from this source, they are inexpensive compared with other sources. They even have reasonably priced underwater lights too.

Tom...

 

[Merlin Clark]

Those look good Tom, thanks. I can see where the strobes would come in handy with big vessel traffic around!
My boat has a spreader light and steaming light but for some reason no anchor light. The spreader light could use replaced. A previous owner had left an all aroung white with a long wire to be hauled up for anchoring and the fixture is good and the steaming light is a nice fixture so I'll probably do LED bulbs in these.

 

[c_witch]

OH the joys of it all

Lol hiee Merlin,

Isn't it great fun . The little wiring on ours amongst other things used electrical tape and lamp cord wire and was hung from cup holders. I went thru 100 feet of 14-2 marine cable and today had to order an additional 27 feet to do the anchor light.

Brina

 

[Merlin Clark]

Yeah, I'd much rather had spent the money and time on something fun Brina!
This way I know it's done and another big chore off the list.