Spreader Light
Time: Couple of Hours
Level: Intermediate
Bravery Level: 3 Star
For this project I need to upgrade the deck and mast electrical connectors from 2 conductor to 4 conductor. The swap is rather easy. I give it 3 stars because there is a fair amount of new wiring required to complete the Project.
Start by rewiring the existing conductors for the Steaming Light to Pins 1 & 2. Use a volt meter to determine which is positive and negitive. Attach the negitive to pin 1 and the positive to pin 2.
Next run a 2 conductor cable from your electrical panel to the new 4 conducor deck connector. Attach the black conductor to pin 3 and the red to pin 4.
For the spreader light you will only need one of the 4 pins since there is already a negitive connection present for the Steaming Light. The 4th pin will be used for a mast head anchor light. Back at the electrical panel you will need to add a switch and fuse to positive buss. You will then attach the black wire of the new cable to the new switch. Leave the Red wire for a latter upgrade. See Electrical Upgrades for ideas for the extra switch.
At the mast you will need to run a 2 conductor cable from the new connector up the mast, and out a hole near the spreader. Run the cable and then do the wiring. Black to Pin 1 and Red to Pin 3. Since there is all ready a wire attached to Pin 1 you may have to cut the existing wire inside the mast and splice it back together, adding the black conductor from the new cable. There is usually extra wire from the exhisting wiring stuffed into the foot of the mast.
Up at the spreadder end, complete the wiring and mount the spreadder light to one of the spreadder arms.
You can spend a lot of money on a mast spreader light, but I didn't. I went to my local Lowes www.lowes.com and found a nice looking 50 watt 12 volt landscaping flood light. It had a halogen lamp in it and that was all I needed. I rummaged through the lawn sprinkler section and found a "T" attachment that was threaded on the lower portion of the "T" and un-threaded on the upper two arms. It is intended for clamping around a sprinkler system hose and then you
would bore a hole through the lower, threaded, arm of the "T" and water would flow. The threading was just right for the flood lamp - a match made in
heaven. I rewired the flood lamp with marine grade #16 cable and tie wrapped the it to the spreader and then drilled a small hole in the mast and ran the cable down.
The photo at left shows the Spreader Light installed on the Christopher-Jin. When you come in after sundown you have plenty of light for stowing the sails and rigging.
The Photo below shows the sprinkler "T" and a PVC nipple that can be threaded into the "T". For clamping to smaller size rails use rubber gasket material to fill the gap.
I used this same fitting to mount my Garmin GPS antenna to the Stern Safety Rail.
Garmin makes a rail mount but this one only costs a few dollars. The Garmin mount looks better but I would rather put the money into things I cannot make. Keeping the dollars for the good stuff like the Garmin GPS unit itself is a better investment.
