LED Stern Light for the Far Reach

[John Stone]

During the engine install I also installed LED nav lights to replace the kerosene lights. But I never got around to the stern light. I didn't know how I wanted to mount the light. I considered welding bronze brackets and various other ideas. I wanted everything to follow the same theme I have used all along--bronze, copper, wood...a traditional feel. Elegant simplicity is what I strive for. Mostly I think we achieve it as long as I don't get impatient. Like I usually do when I am not sure how to proceed I didn't do anything. Just put it off till it comes to me. It's one thing to day sail around NC without a stern light but with the offshore passage getting closer I had to figure it out.

I decided to stick with the Ipe strut I used to mount the bronze tang on which I hung the kerosene stern light. It took some intricate, though not difficult, work to mill, cut, shape and glue a wood bracket I could mount to the strut. I completed it a couple days ago and then installed it on the boat today. Before, I had a single 10-24 bronze fastener securing the strut over which I whipped black sein twine. But, I decided to install a second screw at the top for added security and stability. I'll also wrap the lower half of the strut to the bronze stanchion as before, after it's wired into the 12v system.

I drilled a horizontal hole through the block to run the duplex wire, which will in turn run down along rhe stanchion and through the deck via the Blue Seas wire clam already containing the AIS coax. I think it will all fit.

MTF.