Navigation Lights

K

ken 120

New member
Hello Out there:

Just replaced a blown navigation port light - When checking to make sure that everything was working noticed on my 01 22 that the port and starboard navigations lights do not come on unless the anchor light is on.
Never noticed that before since when cruising I put the three lights on at dusk.

Is that the way it is suppose to be or do I have troubles? My boat has separate rocker panels for the anchor light and the navigation lights and you would think that the anchor light and navigation lights would work independently. Anchor light comes on without the navigation lights on.

Ken
 
The anchor light is your 360 deg white light while "powering" required by Coast Guard regulations. That's the way it should work. My boat has a triple position rocker switch, left is anchor and nav lights, middle OFF, right is anchor only.
 
On my boat, I have separate rocker panels and the lights are independent. E.g. I can switch either the nav lights or the anchor lot on independently. This is how it was wired at the factory but I think with different people rigging lights both at the factory and eslewhere, it gets done different ways. It seems to me that as long as you can turn the anchor light on by itself and have the nav lights optionally on, the wiring is OK.
 
On my 2004 22 when I turn on the nav light switch all 3 come on. When I turn on the anchor light switch only the white comes on. This is accomplished with a diode between the nav lights switch and the anchor light switch that lets the power flow to the white light when the nav switch is turned on.

I discovered this because on my boat the diode was put in backwards and when I turned on the anchor light switch all 3 lights came on. Once I turned the diode around it worked as intended.

Steve
 
I just went out to the shop and tried the lights on the Mary Ellen. When the anchor light post is installed it comes on with the navigation rocker switch. If you turn the navigation rocker switch off and turn on the anchor rocker switch only the anchor light comes on. The Mary Ellen is a 2001 22 foot cruiser. Hope this helps, Big Mac.
 
The old boats could have some fun problems. I think they were rigged for International Rules and had a forward 20 point running light on the removable post, an aft 12 point running light over the cabin door, a combined 10 point red and green forward of the cabin hatch, and an aft 12 point anchor light on the post (which would combine with the forward 20 point running light on the post for anchoring), all running on a three-position pull switch. So you had a three-position switch and four lights. The possibilities for getting the hookup wrong were just about endless!

The previous owner of my boat could never get the lights right. I don't know if he fooled around with the connections but it took me about two hours to get it hooked up properly when I bought the boat. I think it was wired incorrectly from the factory.

Mike
 
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