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.....................................--- 2 Watt LED Anchor Light ---
Since we anchor out about every night that we are on a trip wwe figured a real anchor light was in need. We do also tie to shore at times, and my understanding is that an anchor light might only be required while actually anchor, but don't know if that is true. If we are tied in close to shore in a protected area we generally don't use the anchor light, but in any other situation we do.
Once we decided to get a light, we wanted one that would have the lowest amperage draw and started looking at LED lights and soon found that it they were Coast Guard approved they weren't cheap. If fact the one we bought is one of the only 'Coast Guard approved LED lights' we could find. There were $40-$50 dollar alternatives that we considered, but after some thoughts about our sue happy society we felt for piece of mind we would go with the more expensive 'Coast Guard approved' one.
So the winner was a NaviLED®360 from Hella Marine and we got it from Defender for $99.00 and the following will document mounting it to the top of the mast.
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In the vise is the cap that came off the top of the mast. The bottom right arrow points to a hole where the Windex Wind Indicator will mount. The middle arrow points to one of the three attachment points for the anchor light. The other two holes fall off of this and are the reason for the additional mounting plate that is coming up next. The top arrow points to where the electrical cable for the light will go through the top piece and down into the mast. The holes to either side of that arrow are to mount the plate that is made next to this piece.
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I made the mounting plate from part of this sign. I have a friend that works for the county road signs and he occasionally brings me a sign they took down and are going to throwing away, so no I didn't take the sign from along the road. I drilled the holes (arrows) in it to match the holes in the mast top plate (former picture).
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I mounted the light to the sign using the one hole that also goes through both the light base and the mast top plate (bottom left arrow). The bottom right arrow is for the wind indicator mount and the top arrow was the hole already in the sign.
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After drilling the other two mounting holes for the light a cut line was scribe aroung the base with a magic marker (arrows).
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Then the back side of the plate was marked with the marker (left two arrows). The right arrows point to the holes used to mount the plate to the mast plate, along with the hole to the left of them (with the bolt).
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Using the scribed lines the plate was cut out and the paint ground off. Here you can see all of the holes that will be used.
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Here are the pieces put together with the mount for the wind indicator on the back (arrow).
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Here is the wind indicator mounted. It is taken off when the mast is down and the boat is on the trailer. The only problem is remembering to mount it before raising the mast. Only once in the three trips since making this piece have we remembered to put the wind indicator in place and we never lowered the mast once it was up to correct our mistake. Heck isn't that why we were born with two ears? So we know when the wind is directly on our face!
The anchor light is always on the mount/mast, so we can't forget it. The one time we did remember to mount the wind indicator we forgot to take it off before driving 90 miles home. The up to 70 mph speeds on the highway didn't seem to hurt it, so maybe we can leave it on all the time.
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Here the light, with its mount, has been rivited back to the top of the mast (arrow).
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We are very happy with the intensity of the light, here shown in the shop with the shop lights on.
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Here at night with the shop lights off.
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Here the boat is on anchor on Kootenay Lake in B.C. Canada on our trip there. The light is very visible at night. It has to be seen for at least 2 NM in order to be Coast Guard approved.
For now I took off the mast running light and and used that wire with an extension on it to power this light and feel that according to the rules I can run it as an 'all around' mast top light if under power at night and be legal, but that might not be correct. We never have motored or sailed at night. I plan on running new wiring in the mast and got a four wire deck connector, so will be returning the mast running light to service at some point over the winter.
It was hard to spend $99 on a light, but we are very happy with it and how well it is made and would do it again. Also remember it uses less that 2 watts (less than .17 amps) of electricity and is Coast Guard Approved.
