Replace or repair a navigation light

R

RobLL

New member
Despite noticing the rip tides all over the place in Rich Passage , accompanying a new moon tide I did not exercise extra precautions coming into the Bremerton Marina. After a few seconds of panic and an unpleasant meeting with an anchor hanging off the port side of a sailboat, but with the assistance of a new friend in a neighboring boat we came to a safe stop.

But a new ding forward and in need either of a new green navigation light, or possibly just a new bulb and lens. The manual does not give brand and part numbers for my 2008 boat - anyone out there have that information, and what company has the parts.

I did consider posting this in the 'daily laugh' section, of course at my expense. In my defense the current was the worst I have ever seen. When I took the boat out earlier to gas up, coming back the always going to the north current (out going or incoming tide) actually had reversed itself to a southerly current. Normally the top foot of water inside the marina does not have any current - it sure did on Monday!
 
Here is a paste of some info I wrote into another thread. This is four years old, but may be a good start.

***
Going from a photograph (no C-Dory here to look at ), it looks like a Perko 170 Series light. You've probably found it by now, but I'll put the info here in case it may help someone who finds the thread later via search.

(BTW, someone please correct me if this is not the correct fixture/series, and I will take steps to have this part of the post removed.)

I had a bit of confusion as I was looking this up, as my "old" (2008, paper) catalog (with figure numbers, George ) showed this light as the Perko "120 Series." But then the Perko online catalog showed it as the "170 Series" and the part numbers carried that number also (to further confuse the issue, there is a similar LED light, as folks above also noticed). Then I found this note on the Perko site:

"The old 12 volt 0120 Series lights are superseded by the 0170 Series."

So it looks as though these may have been 120 series lights when (many of) the boats were built, but are now 170 series (presuming I have the correct light; there are other brands that make a similar looking light, but since the all-around is Perko....)

Here is the Perko online catalog page for the green side light of the 170 series:
Perko sidelight, green:
http://www.perko.com/catalog/category/n ... oduct/934/

That shows that the part number for the whole green light fixture is this:
0170BSD
Seems to be around $35 now.

For the lens:
0170BSDLNS
Seems to be around $20, so not that much of a savings. I guess that's because the whole fixture is not that expensive. On the higher-priced ones, replacing a lens is usually a much smaller percentage of the overall fixture price.

previous thread link:
http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?t=18158

*****

Since that time, I've installed Marine Beam LED replacement bulbs into my same stock Perko running light (and anchor light) fixtures. This is not quite as good as "native" LED fixtures because you still have the bulb/metal contacts as potential weak points (vs. "potted" LED ones), but in my case the LED fixtures available at that time (the matching Perko native LED fixtures were like $200 or something crazy) had a completely different shape and hole pattern, so I elected to put the LED bulbs in the stock Perko housings (something like $20).
 
And in case it got lost in my wordy paste up above, just know that you can easily order Marine Beam LED bulbs for the Perko 170 lights. For awhile I didn't plan to do this (only planned to do anchor light), because I figured, well, I'm underway when using the running lights, hence the motor is on, hence I have plenty of power for the lights.

But, as someone who had thought it through a bit more posted (maybe it was Rogerbum?), regular (incandescent) light bulb filaments are prone to damage by vibration, whereas LED bulbs aren't. And through both trailering and being underway there is plenty of vibration. So while powering the incandescent running light bulbs may not be an issue, LED bulbs may still be an upgrade to consider due to their hardiness (and relatively reasonable cost).

I made sure to keep my wiring and fusing "up" to the higher draw of incandescent bulbs, because I carry the original bulbs as spares.
 
I just recently replaced my nav lights with Perko LED's. They are smaller than the original, but with a little cosmetic work and paint, I plugged the old mounting holes. The new LED's are quite bright and look nice on the boat. I found the lights on Amazon for a very good price. By the way, these are the two mile lights. I could find the one mile lights for the same price at other retailers, but like the brighter ones.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O0DEC6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
I replaced with the Marine Beam LED's Sunbeam liked...extremely bright and well made (not the cheapest, but buy Quality the first time and you'll only have to buy it once).
Colby, we can have a brightness contest at Hontoon in March. Do you have a Candela meter or something equivalent? I'm assuming that you would. Also, the Marine Beam LED replacements for Davis Megalights are terrific and amazing.
Also, the Marine Beam LED red/white replacements for the interior Dome lights are terrific and amazing. Press once for red, twice for white. Just call them and describe your bulbs and they'll get you the right thing Guaranteed. Quality merchant at a fair price.
Thanks to Sunbeam for the original find.
Happy shopping!
John
 
Nope, no brightness meter in my tool box. lol. I do like the idea of dome lights that you can press twice for red. I may have to look into those sometime. For now, on the inside, I've just replaced the incandescent bulbs with LEDs. Colby
 
I used to be really careful to only have red lights below at night. I still like and use them, but gee, it's hard to maintain night vision now with all the electronics' screens. Even when they have "night view" it's much brighter and not red. Naturally the electronics can be helpful, which is great; but just.... it's not so easy to maintain low/red light below these days.
 
I replaced my C-Dory standard issue Perko 120 lights in 2011, with the LED 170 series lights. My original lights were always wet inside and the lamp fixture were badly corroded, so the bulbs worked infrequently, even when I carefully cleaned and lubricated the contacts.
The thought of drilling new holes is not something that I take lightly, so I chose the 170 fixture, so that it would mount to the OEM holes (i thought). The mounting screws are in the same orientation, but the wire is not in the center of the light as the old one was. Though the wire for the LED is smaller, I was not going to drill another hole. Instead, I purchased 1/8" rubber gasket material, cut the gaskets to the same dimension as the back mounting, then cut a grove in the gasket to snake the new (small LED) wire to enter the original location of the 120 light OEM wire location.
Bottom line is the light fixture IS the same size, its just that the wire is near the top of the light. The new lights continue to work well, even when moisture gets inside of the fixture (because of a poor design). Lastly the LED lights were WAY overprice for a crappy Perko product.
 
I got the replacement part, updated and with a different fastening pattern. Instead of four bolts at the corner there are two fore and aft in the middle.

So I will need to fill at least two holes, maybe 2 of the 4 previous will be in the right place (fondly I hope). And it did not come with the recommended fasteners, 5 mm or #10 wood screws, but I can come up with those, but the older model used bolts. I guess I screw them into a wood backer.

The number of the new part is 0170WSDDP1, the shop assured me that is the replacement part for the older 0170. Anyone know different?
 
I just went to the link from my post above, which leads to the Perko catalog. I'm not sure which light you got (port, starboard, etc.) but, for example, the green shows as 0170BSD12V if buying individually, or 0170BSDDP1 for a dealer package of five. Searching a bit more, it looks like your part number is the one for the 170 series, package of five (dealer package), white housing (hence the W instead of the B after the "0170" in the part number).

Here is a link to the catalog page for the green light, black housing. My 22 has black housings on the lights, so that's the page I had looked up previously. Perko catalogs are a wealth of information (the real deal, with good old figure numbers and everything). Here's the link for the green sidelight, to get you started:

http://www.perko.com/catalog/category/n ... oduct/934/

PS: I never did replace my housings, because instead I bought Marine Beam LED bulbs for them, but I wonder if the mounting hole change came in when they changed from the 120 series to the 170 series (?). From a note on the linked page in the Perko catalog:

The old 12 volt 0120 Series lights are superseded by the 0170 Series

I think they both look the same on the outside, but maybe the 170 mounting holes were changed at that time? Just guessing.
 
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