Rewire Mashnee Nav Lights

Statement of Problem

Mashnee is equipped with the following navigation lights:

• Tricolor light atop the mast (red/green/white)
• Anchor light atop the mast (all-around white)
• Steaming light (white forward-facing "masthead" light 2/3 up the mast)
• Deployable sidelights (red/green; affixes to Samson post; plugs into socket in bow vent)
• Deployable sternlight (white; attaches to backstay; plugs into socket in stern vent)

Mashnee uses several breakers for control of its navigation lights.

• TRICOLOR LIGHT breaker - Turns on either the tricolor light or the anchor light. A toggle switch next to the mast switches between the two.
• STEAMING LIGHT breaker - Turns on the steaming light and powers the socket for the bow sidelights.
• SOLAR PANEL breaker - Powers the socket used for either the solar panel charger or the sternlight.

This configuration has some drawbacks:

1. Sidelights cannot be powered unless the steaming light is on. This means that the only legal lighting configuration for a vessel under sail is to use the tricolor light. Use of a tricolor while far from shore is a good option, as the light can be seen from a greater distance. However, use of a tricolor in a crowded harbor is problematic, as other vessels are generally looking out for lights on other boats closer to the surface of the water, and may not see the tricolor high atop the mast.
2. Labeling of the breakers is confusing and non-intuitive.
3. Switching between the tricolor and anchor lights requires a crew member to go down into the forward cabin and find the toggle switch.
4. Deployment of the sidelights and sternlight is cumbersome and requires going forward on deck.

Assumptions

• We want to drill as few holes as possible into the interior or exterior of Mashnee.
• We want to preserve the aesthetics of the boat as much as possible.
• We want to make the operation of the vessel as simple and intuitive as possible.

Proposed Improvements

Mashnee currently uses two breakers for control of cabin lights and 12v outlets:

• MAIN CABIN breaker - powers lights and outlets on the port side of the vessel.
• CABIN 2 breaker - powers lights and outlets on the starboard side of the vessel.

Apart from being incorrectly labeled, use of two breakers for all the lights and sockets is not necessary. I propose that these two breakers be re-tasked and relabeled as the following:

• CABIN LIGHTS & OUTLETS - will power all of the cabin lights and 12v sockets in both cabins.
• RUNNING LIGHTS - will power the sockets used for the deployable sidelights and sternlight. Other possible names for this breaker include "NAVIGATION LIGHTS", or "SIDELIGHTS/STERNLIGHT", or "BOW/STERN LIGHTS".

Additional changes:

• The STEAMING LIGHT breaker will only power the steaming light on the mast.
• The SOLAR PANEL breaker will only power the socket for the solar panel.
• An additional socket will be installed in the stern lazarette for the sternlight which will have a different type of connector than the socket for the solar panel.

Battery Powered Backup Lights

Two battery powered Navisafe Tricolor lights with RAILBLAZA Starport mounts should be kept on the boat. Each of these lights can serve as a red/green pair of sidelights, or as a white stern light. A suitable mount for one of these lights will be installed on top of the wooden box that fits on top of the Samson post. Another mount will attached to the apparatus the clamps the deployable sternlight to the backstay. The primary sidelights and sternlight will plug into their respective 12v sockets, and the battery-powered lights will be available as backups. Note that these Navisafe lights can also be mounted in a winch socket if other mounting options fail.

Other Solutions

• The most robust and foolproof solution would be to install permanent sidelights in the bow of Mashnee, and install a permanently mounted sternlight on the stern. This would require drilling holes in the boat. The wiring described above would still apply to permanently mounted running lights.

• On X Dimension, a separate electrical sub-panel was installed in the cockpit which allowed all of the various navigation lights to be controlled from the cockpit, with a single breaker inside the main cabin that powered the sub-panel. This would require cutting a suitably sized hole in the cockpit somewhere.