Me and My Boat: Nav Lights

Prior to going to Menards I had been looking trough my tool box for solder.  I could have sworn that I had some.  I had placed the tray up on a large deep cardboard box, which had been the shipping container for my sails and now served for miscellaneous boat gear storage.  I looked though the tray, but I didn’t find the solder; that was another item I purchased. 

At some point after I had returned from the store, I was fixing my flood light; the bulb had burned out and I was over by the shelf to find a new one.  As I turned from the shelf I bumped the box; the tray and the entire contents there in plummeted into it with a crash.  “Brilliant”, I said looking into the dark depths of the box at the jumbled array of tools sprawled at the bottom.  I rolled my eyes and continued with my present task of interior illumination.

I soon discovered I needed a tool and back to the box I went.  Grrrrrrr.  I swear, some of my antics just amaze me.  I’m sure it would have looked pretty funny seeing me with my entire upper body face down in this huge box, fishing of my forlorn tools.  I suppose I could have just up ended the box, but no, that would have been too easy.  As I pulled out handfuls of wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, ratchets, and other tool like items; I looked down at the objects in my hand.  Low and behold my missing solder; it was in the tool box all along.  Murphy’s law.

So, to resume about the navigation lights; I cut thin wafers of plastic off the night light cover.  My first attempt was slow since I was essentially experimenting with the plastic cover, modifying it to fit my needs.  Did you know that when you apply a fast moving abrasive surface to plastic, it melts?  As I said, I left plenty of room for error not having any experience with this sort of thing.  The result was that small melted globules of plastic formed around the area as it was being cut. 

At first I was concerned, thinking that my idea was not going to work out the way I had planned, or I would need to find a different method of cutting the plastic.  Examining the cut eased my fears.  The globules were superficial and easily removed; leaving a nice smooth cut surface on the plastic cover.  I was getting a lot of melting because I was going slowly.  I soon discovered I could increase the speed of the cut and reduce the globule formation. 

Once I sliced off a wafer, I then scrapped the globular melted plastic off with a knife, and repeated.  With every slice I would reexamine the cover to see how it fit in the fixture.  Soon, I had two Navigation light covers. 

Now it was time to mount them.  After applying some silicon to the base of the cover, I stuck it in place over the small hole where the light bulb would be, and then taped it in position.  I did the same to the other side.  It was now time to stick the teardrop shaped stainless steel fixtures over the plastic light covers.  That went off with out a hitch and the navigation fittings were now ready for their guts.

Here would be another jury rigging opportunity.  I had no proper mounting bracket for the 12volt light bulbs; I would have to make one.  Using an external garden lighting kit I had bought for three dollars, I fashioned an internal mounting bracket that would easily facilitate changing a bulb when necessary. 

I cut the clear plastic cover which holds the light bulb assembly to fit.  It needed to be considerably smaller and would hold the light bulb in place.  Again, working slowly, checking to make sure my creation would fit, I produced an interior holding bracket for the light bulb.  With one out of the way the second was easy.

Nav Lights

I then found another use for the glue gun.  I put copious amounts of glue on my recently produced mounting brackets and then held them in place until secured to the bulkhead. They were now ready to be hooked up; a simple mater of splicing the wires together. 

It was the moment of truth; I hit the switch and the port and starboard navigation lights shown brightly from their teardrop fixtures.  I was quite pleased with myself and stared at the boat for some time.  The lights were brighter then I had anticipated.  I didn’t think my handy work would have been so effective at illumination; expecting a much duller display.  But hey, bright is good, the whole purpose is to be seen.  The effect was enhanced by the new glossy white paint which reflected green and red lines off the hull.  My boat is starting to look pretty damn good if you ask me.

After I got the port and starboard lights working I mounted the aft light.  The navigation lights would then be complete except for the mast head light.  It too would have its day.