Mast Lights Finally Working!!

[Warren Kaplan]

For the first time in two years, my mast lights are working. Finally found the SNAFU. I have 3 wires coming from the panel to the plug by the mast. And 3 wires going from the mast side of the plug up the mast to the lights. Here's what the problem was. In the mast, the white wire is for the deck light. The black wire is for the steaming (mast) light. And the green wire is the ground. On the boat side, from the panel to the plug, this is what I found. The white wire is for the deck light. Okay so far. But the green wire is the hot wire for the steaming (mast) light. And the black wire is the ground. Very odd! I couldn't test the boat side until I got the batteries back in and that was two weeks ago. I had to use my trusty voltmeter with a jumper wire back to the negative pole on the battery to figure it out. The past two years it "looked" like the connections were right but the wire colors got switched. I just switched the black and green wires into the boat side plug and everything lit up. Another mystery solved!

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27
Oyster Bay Harbor, New York



Setsail728@aol.com

[yves feder W1UX]

For the first time in two years, my mast lights are working. Finally found the SNAFU. I have 3 wires coming from the panel to the plug by the mast. And 3 wires going from the mast side of the plug up the mast to the lights. Here's what the problem was. In the mast, the white wire is for the deck light. The black wire is for the steaming (mast) light. And the green wire is the ground. On the boat side, from the panel to the plug, this is what I found. The white wire is for the deck light. Okay so far. But the green wire is the hot wire for the steaming (mast) light. And the black wire is the ground. Very odd! I couldn't test the boat side until I got the batteries back in and that was two weeks ago. I had to use my trusty voltmeter with a jumper wire back to the negative pole on the battery to figure it out. The past two years it "looked" like the connections were right but the wire colors got switched. I just switched the black and green wires into the boat side plug and everything lit up. Another mystery solved!

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27
Oyster Bay Harbor, New York

Weird! Good news though Warren. We now expect to see those lights steaming up Fisher's Island Sound later this summer, nice and bright:)
Yves




saltwater@tinyradio.com