Increscent Moon

Installing Masina 'Afa LED Lights in Individual A-Q Series 40 Side Light Fixtures

Cory and Barbara visited us here in Fiji aboard their Tayana, S/V 'Increscent Moon'. Cory, with the advantage of being a retired engineer, immediately saw the advantages of our products. Not only did he purchase a Masina Malosi for his tri-color (a 'Masina Malosi' and an increscent moon is one in the same!), but he also wanted to convert his deck level running lights to LEDs. The advantage of this isn't as much as the power consumption (these are generally used when he is under power), but to avoid the problems of loosing an incandescent filament when a cold wave hits the hot filiment.
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Series 40 Aqua Signal Side Light Fixture Before Dis-assembly-Click to Enlarge

The original assembly with the Masina 'Afa and spacer. {Note: We do not attach the spacer to the 'Afa, as there are height differences between the base and the lens center between fixture manufacturers. Effective May 2008, we have also added three holes on both the base of the light, as well as the spacer, to allow the light to be wired tied, and glued, to the spacer. This change was based on input from a customer, John L., who suggested this 'belt and suspenders' approach.}


To remove the back from the navigation light fixture, you only need to remove the four small screws at the base back.		The base will then pull off the fixture. On this light, it took a bit of a pull due to the age of the gasket.

	Disassembling the bulb socket from the plug. The way Cory did his project, he saved the two stainless self-tapping screws to create a blank. Not strictly necessary, but it made for a much tidier looking job when he was finished.
Frankly, I would have skipped this part and just lead the wires thru the centre hole of the plastic socket with a drop of sealant to keep most of the water weight out. Our LED replacement navigation light 'bulbs' are fully waterproof (above 1 meter depth), so they really don't care a whit if they get a drop or two of water, unlike the original light, or some of our competitor's lights.


Here Cory shows the individual pieces of the plug, but with the blank that he had made.		The re-assembled plug, with the blank, viewed from the top.

The re-assembled plug again, but this time from the side.



Just like Ed and Fran on 'Aka' did on their conversion here, Cory then checked the Masina 'Afa LED replacement running light bulb and spacer for alignment...		Then glued it place in with some Selley's.

	Lastly, he reattached the side light back to the lens.


Cory initially considered using a junction block to attach the ship's lighting circuit to the LED light with a junction block...		But in the end he opted to solder the wires together and protect the solder joint with some heat shrink tubing. Heat shrink crimp fittings would have worked well also, but to avoid nicking the heat shrink, you do need to have a proper calibrated crimping tool, not one of the cheap, er, 'less expensive' two jaw models!


After slipping the fixture back on the boat with the quick release, here is the starboard side...		And the port. Even in our Tropical Sun, you can easily see that the lights are on!

	Last, but far from least, the stern light.


Of course, a job is never finished until QA buys off! This is Tom of Waitui Marina in Savusavu, inspecting Cory's hard work.