cape dory 28 wish replace with LED light bulbs

[arch007]

hi,

I am restoring a cape dory 28 and wish to replace all existing light bulbs with LED bulbs.

Can anyone tell me the manufacturer and what size, etc LED bulbs to buy ?

The side navigation lights are original. I believe they may be made by perko ?

The masthead is aqua signal 40 series.

The mast deck light is original and needs replacing.

Stern light is original.

Thanks,

arch

[Steve Laume]

Take a good look at the lenses and make an honest assessment about their clarity before you start buying expensive bulbs. I would imagine there are some nice fixtures with standard LED bulbs available that might not cost anymore than replacing your bulbs and lenses. If you do decide to replace bulbs I have found these guys to have a great selection. http://www.doctorled.com/p2.htm The polar star series fit the aqua signal lights that came on Raven. They also have nice comparison charts on what will fit.

Don't neglect the interior bulbs. I would say there are one or two int lights that see more use than the running lights on most boats. You could at least do the ones you use the most. You usually have the choice of warm and cool white. Cool is brightest but a bit harsh for nice mood lighting down below. It does make for a nice bright work or reading light. I would suggest getting at least one of each and trying them out in different locations to see what works best for you before buying a complete set of bulbs for down below. I have done all the bulbs on Raven with the exceptions of the compass, panel indicator and the steaming light. I figure the engine is always going to be running when the steaming light is on so there is plenty of power for that and the other two are tiny and I just haven't gotten around to dealing with them.

My battery monitor tells me that a typical incandescent bulb draws about one amp where as the LED equivalent draws .1 to .2 amps. So I could basically burn every light in the boat for what it used to cost me to run one, Steve.

[Paul D.]

Thirteen years ago I added solar and started replacing the incandescents aboard in order to stick to a small house battery footprint. I replaced all the original bulbs (only got a V berth lamp left!) on Femme. I used the Festoon Star Series from Dr Led for the nav and anchor lights and for the interior berth and dome lights, SensiBulb's from a Defender sale. Femme has the original Aqua Signal nav light housings.

The SensiBulbs are excellent interior lighting as far as brightness and warm color. The original ones, with which I replaced my first one years ago, were a little colder/bluer in color. The polar star bulbs seem to work just fine too after several seasons. This may be the most inexpensive way to go LED.

Interior light bulb replacements
http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?pa ... &id=865688

For the nav lights I used these bulb replacements
http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?pa ... id=1809351

[rorik]

FWIW, I replaced all of my CD28's lights -in and out - with AquaSignal and LunaSea LED's.
Four years and counting, still happy. I also re-wired the entire boat.