Intermittent Anchor Light

Fixing our Intermittent Anchor Light

On a recent 160nm trip with four nights at anchor, we noticed our anchor light was out. It's not a complex system. On/Off Switch (Circuit Breaker ) on the Electrical Panel, Wires inside the Mast and LED Anchor light mounted on a bracket at the Mast head.

Testing:

Using a digital AVO I checked the power at the Breaker - It was good and solid, no wiggly switch!

While Peggy watched the Mast head, I 'wiggled' the wire joint at the base of the mast - Yep! On and Off while wiggling ( the wires, not me or Peggy ) So I need to rework the joints of the wires at the base of the mast.

According to the Catalina's Owner's Manual ( Pg. 30 ) There is a 4 wire cable for the Mast Ground, Anchor Light, Deck Light and Steaming Light.

In practice there is also a Coaxial Wire ( Masthead VHF Antenna) and a NEMA 2000 Drop wire ( Masthead Wind Transducer )

At present, that 4 wire cable is a mess of electrical tape and probably soldered butt joints - I'll cut them open and rewire them as follows.

In practice, that will look something like this.

Sketch of Bilge area just in front of the mast.

I'm planning on mounting the Terminal block with Thickened Epoxy in a position that the screws are accessible from the top. Might have to put it on the Port side if the existing cable is not long enough.

Plan is to do this on Monday, same day that we'll work on removing the old head toilet and install a new one.

Well, it's done, working but didn't work out as expected.

My sketch shows the terminal block neatly affixed to the side of the bilge, turned out that's almost impossible! The access to that bilge area is very small and getting to the block if it is installed there is equally nearly impossible.  Also, the wire from the block to the electrical control panel is too short to reach down to that point.

The other issue ( non issue ) is that the wires from the mast are a 2 pair and 3 pair . The black wire in both are 'common'.

This is what I started with. those joints are soldered twisted wires covered with Liquid rubber and then two layers of electrical tape.

You can see the 4 wire brown sheathed cable in the lower right hand ( Port side ) of the picture.

With some careful pulling, I was able to extend the brown sheathed cable out another 1.5" but still not enough to be able to connect to the terminal block if it was secured to the side of the bilge and there would be no reasonably easy way to get a screwdriver in there to secure the wire terminals.

I elected to have the terminal float and secured by a zip tie.

First task was to document the wire connections.

4 Wire: 

Red - White stripe to Red Two Wire

Red - Green Stripe to Black Common two and three wire

Red - Black Strip to White Three Wire

Red - Solid to Green Three wire

Using a knife I peeled back the wrapping and then cut the wires close to the solder joints

Cut the outer covering of the Two and Three wire cables so that they were all the same length.

Stripped the wire ends for Crimped Ring Terminals

After shrinking the terminal covers, it all went together really easy.

I'm anticipating pulling the mast in December to do a few jobs on the mast and to replace the standing rigging.

Also cleaned up the sheaths of the two cables, just had to wipe them down with a Clorox wipe.

I put the terminal block cover on and secure it to with a couple of small zip ties.

Next: Test it!

Peggy operated the switches while I rushed around the boat on and off the dock to check the lights were working. 

Anchor Light 👍 

Steaming Light 👍 

Deck Light 👍 

Running Lights 👍  ( Tested but not part of the Mast wiring )

So all deck and Nav lights are working

With the wiring checked out, I secured the terminal block and the 2 & 3 wire cables to the P clip that is under that screw in the top left corner of the picture.

Yes, I cleaned up the deck support and the bilge before closing it up and re-testing - all's good.

Cross this one off the list and updated the Service history.

See you on the water.

Paul