Ericson 25, Electrical, Main Salon, LED Reading Light, Installation, S/V Mary Ella


Newly-Installed LED Reading Lights on S/V Mary Ella
Mark Capell is an Ericson 25 owner in the State of Oregon. He recently contacted me regarding his installation of new LED reading lights in his main salon. With his permission, I am posting the information he provided me concerning this project. I must say that he is a dedicated owner to have tackled this job under the conditions he describes below. I suppose spring fever is in the air - everywhere - even in those places where the snow is still piled high in early April 2013.

Here's what Mark had to say:
My boat is still covered for winter.  It actually snowed here yesterday.  I am so anxious to get started on it that I crawled under the plastic to do a project in the cabin yesterday.  On both sides of the main cabin there was a nasty looking yellow florescent light fixture.  The on/off switches were getting corroded, and they were just ugly. 
I decided to replace them with LED lights and put three on each side.  I wanted lights that were adjustable in terms of direction and had an on/off switch on each fixture since they would be on the same circuit and I would quite often only want a few of them on. They are Seasense LED Reading Lights.  I purchased them from First Choice Marine via Amazon for $26.84 each including shipping and the light bulb.  For some reason, purchasing them from Amazon direct they were $28.21 each.
The interesting thing was comparing my electrical wiring to your article.  You said, “To join the leads from the lights to this main run, they simply shaved some insulation from the wires, twisted the wire from the leads around these bare spots, and then patched the wound with black electrical tape.”  Mine was exactly the same.  It’s hard to believe that it was done that way at the factory.  The good news was that with the exception of the strange way of attaching the wires and the electrical tape, the wire was in good condition with no corrosion.  It’s amazing that the electrical tape held up for 37 years.

I decided to add one on the port side of the v-berth so that both my wife and I would have our own reading lights.  The only part that I haven’t settled on is what type of fixture to put in the head. I have attached some photos. Have a great day!
Mark Capell
Bend, Oregon