Bow mounted search light

[Rich]

I just finished fabricating a mount for a searchlight which I'm mounting
on the bow railing. My question is can I run the wiring through the railing. Anyone who has done that I'd appreciate some advice. Thanks

[thataway]

I have not done this on a C dory, but on may other boats. You have to remove bow railing. drill a hole in the center of the plate into the tubing. Be sure and polish up the edges, and maybe even put a gromet in the opening, or put heat shrink tubing around the wire where you go thru the SS plate on the bottom. The hole thru the deck, needs to be epoxy lined--route out the core of the deck (good time to fill the screw holes also).

Drill the hole in the tubing, under the place where you mounted the light polatform. The wire has to ge into the furthest aft tubing-so it will pass directly to where you have the platform (if you use one of the further foreward deck mount tubes, you will dead end where it is welded to the aft tubing.

Be sure that this is fused separately, maybe even after the switch.

[seahooked]

Rich,
I mounted a bow Golight spotlight recently on my CD-25. It was pretty easy to drill into the rail and run the cable inside, however I did have some trouble making the hole where the rail attaches to the boat. The end of the rail is not hollow, but instead has a flat plate welded to the end. I drilled through the hull from the inside and then through the end plate. I initially did not choose the furthest back (angled) rail section to enter the boat- this was a mistake. I couldn't fish the cable through the 90 deg bend. So I had to redrill at the "furthest back rail section", and got the cable through ok.

Probably spent 3 hours getting the cable through which was certainly more time than I expected, but it was still worth it. Good luck!

[starcrafttom]

I did the same as seahook and drilled from the v berth into the bottom of the tube. start small on the bits and work up to the right size, You have to be careful not to drill into the rail wall.

And like sea hook I started to drill into the closes up right. well it does not go Thur to the rail. the wall of the top rail is in the way. Very obvious if you have welded tubs before, I have not, smart ass friend has. Never occurred to me to remove the rail, too much work.

[thataway]

My opinion--only--is that in the long run it is less work to remove the railing--that way you can properly prepare the bolt holes and fill the hole you drill for the cable. Also allows you to get amooth sides of that dack flange (plate welded onto the railing).

How do you get a big drill in next to the hull to get the correct angle, drilling a 3/8 to 1/2" hole thru that plate? The deck is over 3/4" thick at that point because of the core.

[starcrafttom]

lay on back, feet on ceiling, 45 degree angle wish on a star. the thing that sucked is I had to do it twice.

After the wire is all rigged thru the hole I filled the hole with a lot of silicone putty. shot in a 1/4 of a tube.

p.s. your right It may have been easier to take the rail off. but not as fun

[Sea Angel]

My aft section of bow rail on the CD25 was pulled out enough to drill the base plate and then the decking. What we found was the core was not as complete as was expected. The fix was to fill the voids with epoxy and redrill - now the rail is on solid footing.

What a way to do an inspection.

Art

[Rich]

Thank you all for the input you saved me a lot of hassle in running those wires. Didn't know about the hardplate and was considering which upright to go through. I really appreciate it thanks