Installing Replacement LED Lights Into A Carribean Cruising Boat

We're not sure if Mark has an 'All Bebi' boat, but it isn't far from it! Mark and Deb Parker, aboard s/v Always and Always, somewhere in the Carribean' is very close to it! Besides the Carribean, we have shipped all over both America's, Europe, Oceania, and the Middle East, with absolutely no heart-ache on the part of our customers. Trust me, as cruiser's ourselves, we understand that cruising means that you aren't 'home'!

When Mark first contacted us, we had thought that he had a 'Jeny' Light, which is fairly common fixture. I knew that we had a diagram of how one of our Kalokalo LED replacement lights would fit in the 'Jeny' (illustrated to the right), but we couldn't find where we put it.> By the time we had found it, Mark had done his own measuring and went ahead and ordered from us, receiving his 10% SSCA discount (Michael and Kendra of Bebi Electronics are the Savusavu SSCA Cruising Station also).

Some of the fixtures were fairly corroded, so Mark chose to just forgo them, and create a new trim ring

Here is the same light, but dis-assembled and ready to accept the Kalokalo. The white 'doughnut' to the far right in the photo has been cut from a piece of white Starboard.

"I used 1/4" starboard and cut the inner circle 1 1/2". With a little trimming with a sharp knife, I enlarged it just enough to let the LEDs through and hot glued the ' shoulder' of the unit to the back side of the starboard."

"I was then able to glue this assembly back into the original case which had the spring tabs to hold it in place. I used crimp connectors and heatshrink to connect and checked each for polarity (i.e., that it lit up) before crimping. (I know that it is easy to get LEDs backwards - done it myself on electronic projects more than once) You will be happy to know that all reds were +."
Mark's reference on the 'reds' is that a fair number of production boat manufacturer's have been fairly sloppy when it comes to colour coding lighting wiring circuits. One particular manufacturer, who charges dearly for their boats, uses an RV AC light fixture manufactured for the US market, with a black and a white power lead (even tho they follow ABYC for a yellow negative). Unfortunately (and part of the reason for ABYC), in the US AC system, black is 'hot', white is 'neutral', but in the DC system, red is 'hot' and black is negative. If this is confusing, it is because it IS confusing!

The finished salon, looking very nice to us!

LED replacement lights for these bulkhead reading light fixtures was a bit more work, but Mark basically did the same as on the overhead pivoting lights, but this time choosing to use our Warm White LED Rinorino lights.

First he disassembled the light as before...

...then he did a bit of work with a Dremel tool...

Lastly, he glued the light in place with some hot melt and reinstalled the light in place.

Mark also chose to replace his Aquasignal 25 Standard stern light with one of our Masina 'Afa LED replacement side light 'bulb'. First, he removed the old incandescent socket (not show).

Then, Mark chose not to use the included spacer, but rather drilled one extra hole in the base of the light fixture. Then, using the existing slotted holes, he used some wire ties to hold the light until the adhesive set.

All that's left now is to crimp the electrical connectors and put the lens cover back on. Easy!

Mark changed out his bow Bi-Colour Incandescent Lamp also. Looking at the 'before' picture of the light, I believe that this is a Hella BiColor. Of all of the marine running (side) lights, the bow light makes the most sense to change out because of reliability concerns, even if this was a power trawler.

Here's the light with the electrical connections before the lens cover goes on. Note that Mark ordered one of our 'Masina 'Afa Vevela' lights to ensure that the green renders true.

Here's both sides of the finished light. The 'blue-ish' at the bottom of the green is an artifact of shooting during the daytime with a blue-ish trampoline.

		Last, and certainly not least, is Mark's mounting of one of our Beka Kaukaua anchor and cockpit lights. Originally, Mark has discussed with us using a Lulu Kaukaua anchor light.
"The anchor/cockpit light is my pride and joy - it was a great recommendation you made! The original cockpit light was your pretty standard round Fresnel lens light, you can see I reused the base and switch. Because of the arch of my bimini (Isn't that a great bimini?! I walk on it to tend sail and it holds 800W of solar panels) I needed to drop the light down about 6" so it would show 360˚. I used 1/8" brass rod and cut 6-32 threads in both ends. This screwed right into the two screw hole in the existing base. I though about drilling two more holes and using four, but two seems to be working fine..."

"...To mount the LED, I again used starboard and hot glue. I cut a 6" circle (to just fit inside the basket). The basket itself was from a thrift store in Naples -$1.50! I coated the base of the basket with epoxy before cutting the hole for the LED as I didn't want it coming apart. So far this is working. The brass rod is threaded ~2" on that end and has nut/starboard/basket/big washer/nut which holds everything together very well.
It vibrates a bit in over 15 kts of wind, but hasn't loosened or had any problems. The cockpit light is just perfect for dining in the cockpit after sundown and the anchor light is one of the brightest in the harbor. We are VERY PLEASED with the results."