Stern Light Installation

Kiwi and I came to the boat while Ruthie is in Boston at an "A" meet with Lori.  I put up my perch to work on the Utility Mast off the stern of the boat.

 I installed the new stern light up near the top of the utility mast.  Because the mast is on an angle I had to mold an epoxy wedge so the bracket could be vertical.

 That went very well.  I used "breaker tape" over some wood tabs I made.  I removed them while the epoxy was still flexible, but no longer sticky so I could trim the corners with a razor instead of sanding.  When it finished harding I drilled and tapped holes into the alum. mast for machine screws to mount the bracket.

I used a steel fish tape from the top to the opening in the bottom to pull the wire up and out the hole positioned just under the bracket.  I offset the butt connectors (heat shrinkable with glue inside) so they would fit through the hole.  Wiring under the cockpit was uncharacteristically easy.  The original stern light attached to a terminal block near the exit from the utility mast.  So I left it intact.  If I want to switch back to the lower stern light I just have to hook it up again.   By the time I got it wired it was dark.  Tomorrow I'm going to bind a kevlar line to the wire and lead it out the hole and tie it to the bracket to secure the wire without putting a load on the connectors or the small wire coming out of the fixture.

In the middle of the stern light project I motored out into the creek so Paul could move the boat he just put a new engine into out of the way so I could take that spot adjacent to the main dock so I can get the genset out.  I'm hoping to get the genset out the area cleaned out and the galley plumbing mocked up.  I'm looking forward to and dreading the the re-organizing of the engine room.