Warm weather brings opportunities to spend more time on the water. There are a lot of good reasons to take a cruise in the evening when the weather is nice. Boating at night can be a lot of fun, but before you do, make sure that your navigation lights are dependable and that they work properly. This article focuses on upgrading/replacing your navigation lights so that you can be ready for this year's boating season. The products installed here are manufactured by Perko Marine ( www.perko.com) and were supplied by West Marine ( www.westmarine.com). 

Step 1

Proper location for your boat's navigation lights is essential. For this article, both the bow light (combined, red/green) and stern light (white) are upgraded/replaced. Both of the replacement lights have one very important upgrade feature - gold-plated contacts. Fortunately, they're no more expensive than the lights with zinc-plated contacts, and they help to combat one of the primary reasons lights stop working: corrosion. Gold-plated contacts should greatly improve corrosion resistance, provide more reliable connections, and add longer life in harsh conditions. Of the two lights being replaced in this example, the bow light is the easiest. The old one is simply replaced with a new one, in the same location. The stern light is a little different. My old stern light is in a very unusual location - on top of the outboard engine cowling. I decide to replace this light with a plug-in type stow-away pole,  for two reasons: It's more visible because it sits higher off of the deck (pole heights vary, ours was 36 feet), and it can be stored out of the way during the day when it's not in use.

The new location for the replacement light will be the starboard aft corner of the boat. The next step is to install the "base" for the stern pole light. The base is sold separately from the light. For the location you have chosen, be sure you can get inside or underneath the deck easily. You'll need to be able to access the electrical wiring. In this situation, we locate the base just above a live baitwell - a perfect spot, because it's very easy to access from underneath.  The pole itself sits and locks into a 3/4-inch hole in the base, so you'll need to drill a 3/4-inch hole in the deck for the base to fit into so that it sits flush. Once you've done this, mark the two screw holes with a pencil. (These screws secure the base to the deck.) Then, remove the base and drill each of the holes. Finally, secure the base to the deck with the two wood screws that are supplied. Depending upon where you locate your light/base, you may want to use a small amount of marine silicone sealant in the screw holes.  This will help to prevent any possible water leakage.

Step 3

As mentioned earlier, replacing the bow light is probably the easiest part of the whole job. The hardest part of this is cleaning off the old sealant around the base of the old light. For the light to sit entirely flush on the deck, and for you to be able to get a reliable new seal, you must completely remove all of the old, rubbery sealant. The best way to do this is to pull off as much as you can by hand, and then use a dull paint scraper to get any that remains. Be careful with the scraper, as you don't want to damage the gel coat or fiberglass. Once the old sealant is removed, connect the existing wiring to the new light. Apply some fresh marine sealant around the entire base, and then secure it to the deck with the supplied wood screws. In this example, the existing holes are a tad too large for the screws, so I simply replace them with two similar ones that are slightly larger in diameter. This gives a snug fit, and we're able to secure the new light tightly onto the deck. One last note - before securing the light to the deck, turn it on first to make sure it works. This can save you from having to do a few extra steps!

Step 4

The last step is to run the wiring on the stern pole light to the battery or other power source. As mentioned in step two, we placed our light right above a live baitwell for easy access to the electrical wiring beneath. To run the wiring forward to the existing switch on the center console, a small hole is drilled in the very top of a bulkhead that separates the livewell from the bilge compartment. In this example, all of the wiring, steering and control cables are run from the bilge compartment, under the deck, and up to the center console where the switches are located and the battery is stored. Once we're able to feed the wiring from the livewell to the bilge compartment, it's easy to feed it up through the deck with the rest of the wires/cables and then simply attach both ends (there were two wires for the light) to the existing switch. Last but not least, flip the switch to test the system and watch the lights come on! Boating at night is challenging - and having working navigation lights is an important part of being a responsible, safe boater.