Nav station workstation light

[typhoontye]

Howdy folks. My nav station light fixture has failed and I’m trying to find a suitable replacement. The failed fixture may be original. I don’t know. It is 3″ in diameter, brass it appears, and housed a bright, aimable halogen bulb. Very bright and effective for reading charts at the nav station table. You would think it would be a simple matter to find a suitable replacement but that has not been my experience. I’m looking for something similar to the one that failed. That is, bright! I’ve looked at an LED work station light from West Marine and it was not near bright enough. Has anyone cracked this nut already?

David
Blue Moon, #189

[RichCarter]

Pearson built the 424s with inexpensive plastic lights. If you have a brass fixture in your nav station, it’s likely something added after purchase. What’s wrong with the fixture? It can likely be repaired. A photo would help.

[typhoontye]

I’ve had that too, Rich. What has failed is the bulb holder itself. It’s a single contact bayonet, and the positive conductor contact point (spring loaded) had apparently disintegrated and disappeared. Perhaps I can order a bulb holder from an electronics supplier and cobb this back together.

Apologies in advance if these photos are no good… Trying not to overwhelm our system. the first photo is the back side of the fixture. The other is the front side

David

[typhoontye]

Let me try these photos again. Apparently I don’t know what I’m doing.

Attachments:

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[john stevenson]

That looks like the same fixture Pearson used for the berth lights in the aft cabin. I don’t remember what sort of chart light was installed when I bought Sarah. I’ve gone through several halogen types. I finally found a decent LED chart light from MarineBeam. I’ve bought several interior lights from them and they all have been pretty good.
John

[RichCarter]

Oh, I forgot about those reading lights. I removed mine from the nav station years ago. It’s not bright enough and uses a lot of power. I replaced the bulbs over the aft bunk with LEDs but kept the fixtures. The bulb bases tend to stick in the socket. A bit of oil on the bulb base can fix that but if you still have those high intensity bulbs, oil will cause the glass to crack.
Many LED bulbs won’t fit in that socket because the base is recessed. You have to try a few. If the on-off switch doesn’t work, try squirting a bit of PB blaster into the switch. That kills the corrosion and lubricates the switch.

[Bryan Bywalec]

In an effort to get all my bulbs the same I bought a bunch of two prong fixtures with leads and solder them to the bayonet fittings and then glue the fixture to the top of the bayonet.

You can get very bright two prong led lights.

-----
Bryan Bywalec
S/V Pelican, Hull 209
Siren Engineering, LLC

[Neil Mcnamara]

I have those fittings in the vberth on Blue Pelican converted to led not really happy with them. At the nav station a previous owner has changed the light to a traditional cabin light, it’s not bad but I was thinking about changing it to a strip of LEDs possibly white and red.

[RichCarter]

I changed mine to an LED strip too. The bullet type light was not effective and a PIA. You can get LED lights on Amazon for a few bucks. Beware, some of them are very bright. You want one that’s designed for interior use, not an exterior flood light. Something like this should work. As I recall, mine was crewed into the underside of the deck. Be careful not to drill too deep or put a screw in that’s too long.

[typhoontye]

Thank you all for the comments and ideas! I was unaware of MarineBeam, so checked out their website. Some interesting products, including their wind turbine that appears to be pretty quiet. Quieter than my Breeze.
They also have several LED flourescent style fixtures in various lengths, producing up to 500 lumens. I’m thinking I’ll make a choice and order one once I get to the boat and affirm the mounting. Five hundred lumens should be plenty.
Regarding the strip of LEDs, I have that already. That is, the cut to length style LED strips. They are through out the vessel, under overhanging cabinets, and are great for mood lighting. But not close to bright enough for what I need to read charts with my less than optimal eyeballs.

Thanks again
David

[john stevenson]

Re: MarineBeam LED flourescent style lamps.
I Put a 12″ (I think) unit over the sink to replace the ThinLight flourescent i put there 10 years earlier. The LED is much brighter than the Thinlight, comes on instantly and has been on about 16 hrs/day for about 3 years. so I can recommend that product.

john

[RichCarter]

If you want to fix the light, take an old fuse holder, the glass tube barrel fuse type, and pull out the wire from one end. There will be a brass terminal that should be suitable to replace the missing part of your light.

[typhoontye]

Good tip Rich. I have a fuse holder in my stock so I can check this out. Thank you!

David

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