Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
I’ve often considered adding a pair of spreader downlighting to illuminate the cockpit while at anchor or on the slip at night. The original Catalina 25 electrical control panel lists the Deck Lights which I currently use to power the audio sound system, the VHF GPS and a cigarette lighter receptacle. If I add the spreader lights, I’ll have to add a new switch to the panel, or at least reassign a few circuits. If you have a set of spreader lights, how have you set them up?
Some of the bow lights or steaming lights that you can attach to the midpoint of the front of the mast also provides a downlight the shines on the bow of the boat, however, they don’t do much for illuminating the cockpit. Perhaps there’s a way to add one of these lights to the rear of the mast to point the other way? That would take me adding another circuit inside the mast and an additional connector pin to the cabintop through hull electrical connector.
Cockpit Lighting I recently got a traditional looking LED lantern with internal battery.
I really like the ambiance of the flickering flame mode. In the cockpit, I hang the lantern from the tiller handle. It recharges using the USB charging cable, included. I'm quite pleased with the quality.
Leon — this appears to be a very classy solution to the problem of having a cool-looking and convenient light source in the cockpit and down below in the cabin. Having it be USB-powered with a rechargeable battery avoids the issue of having to run an additional power cable.
One concern I might have is if I wanted to hang the light above eye height, it would swing due to the movement of the boat.
I have a solar-rechargeable Lucí light that’s made of a very light inflatable plastic shell that I can hang overhead, so even if it swings, it has very little mass and it’s soft, so no issues there.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.