DaySailer.org Forum

After 20 yrs of rowing the DSII, I finally got an electric motor (Minn Kota, 30lbs thrust). As long as I am lugging around a 40lb battery, I figure I might as well install lights. I read the posts on battery placement. More questions:
1. Is the cuddy too far aft to mount verticle sidelights? It would be so much easier than working in the forepeak. I figure I could cant the bases if necessary to get the required visibility aft.

2. If I'm putting lights and motor on the same battery, do I need to install a panel?

3. Besides sidelights on the cuddy, I'm thinking of a socket for the motor port side aft and a socket for the stern light starboard aft (opposite the motor mount). Toggle switch for the lights on the main bulkhead. Battery box would be just forward of the mast on the cuddy floor. Any concerns with this design?

4. Battery charging. At my marina, most people use solar (there is no power to the individual slips). I imagine having a receptacle somewhere on the cuddy that is already wired to the terminals (maybe through a regulator), where I can plug in the panel. Does that make sense? Where would you place such a receptacle.

I'm aiming for a set up that is low profile. Except for the fixed navigation lights on the cuddy, everything else strips away so the boat is an unencumbered sailboat most of the time. When the motor, lights, and charger are used, they are easy to deploy. At the same time, the electrical project doesn't negate last year's project, which involved making the cuddy near-watertight with a solid hatch and seals around the mast.

Mounting the sidelights at the side of the cuddy should be OK - there's no rule that these lights have to be at the bow - it's just convenient to do so, if you have a combined light. I would go for two separate side lights mounted at the side, because a single one, pointing forward, and mounted in the front of the cuddy, would likely be obscured at times by bow or sail. As you note, you would need to shim these so they illuminate the correct sector.

I find that I use lights more often than the (electric) motor. Therefore, I'm happy with a removable, alkaline battery powered LED navigation light, which I attach at the stemhead fitting. (See the thread on Navigation Lights).

I don't know whether a panel would be absolutely required, but you should provide fuses for your lights. Inline fuses would probably do. (Just to prevent damage to wires/battery if there's a short).

Thanks. I read the Nav Lights thread when it first posted. I opted for installing my portable light by simply mounting a 6mm screw through the deck and screwing the light in by its vertical mounting base. Oars, small lights, and a berth near the end of the dock. I was a happy man. But one too many lee-shore beachings, and the crew threatened mutiny unless I got a motor. I guess I simply can't accept that our little boat will have a live-aboard lead weight that will only be used occasionally. So all of this angst about electrical engineering has to do with my trying to justify that cinderblock in my cabin. Make me feel better. Tell me how much 40 lbs at the base of the mast will improve the righting capacity.