Roger Long wrote:
I looked big, clumsy, sixty dollar spreader lights and figured there
must be a better option for something I won't use much. I see it
primarily as a way to light up our sails when we really want to be
visible. Expected usage would put the price at about a buck a minute
over the next five years.

I found a nice, compact, fog light for less than twelve dollars a
pair. These things used to last for years in the salt and blast under
the front of my car so it seems like they ought to work on a spreader.
It's about the size of an egg and the same amps as the big chrome
thing that came off because it's straps were dozy from being pushed on
by the sail. Yeah, the bracket is painted steel but I already have a
spare.

I got it all installed with the mast ready to go up tomorrow and then
realized that, even though it is two wire, one is grounded to the case
and thus the mast. As long as I get the polarity right, I don't see a
downside to this. The stays are tied to the bonding system. In fact,
there is an upside in that breakage of the negative wire won't disable
my mast lights. Their black wires are all tied together somewhere in
the mast.

If this were something that was on a lot, like the running lights, I'd
isolate it just to keep it in conformity with standard practice. Do
any of the electrical contributors see any reason to do so for
something like this that is used infrequently?

BTW I did drill a drain hole through the lens to let the water out
since it will be in a position it was not designed for.


Me, too.

On all three of my boats that were luxurious enough to afford
spreader lights, I found them all the same, using the mast as a
ground for an automotive style lamp with chassis ground.

As a technician with 30 years experience, I wondered about the code,
best practices, and common sense. I was loathe to go to much extent
with an accessory that I actually never used except in demonstrations.

Then, my most recent boat, a fiberglass 29' bilge keeler, was struck
repeatedly by a big bolt of lightning. It chewed 25 holes the size
of dimes and quarters in the upper starboard foreward quarter of the
mast, in an almost neat line, about 6" apart, all on the most curved
section of the extrusion. The souvenier mast is hanging in the
spruce trees in my back yard, as a demontration of the logic of
lightning. The boat was moored to a dock, plugged in to shore power,
in fresh water.

There was no other damage to the boat or it's electrical system,
save for a new one drip per minute leak around the keel bolt.

After this experience, I am not going to change the way it is set
up. It seems whatever the method, it is as good as it could be.

The mast is grounded to an external cast iron keel with a heavy,
relatively straight wire, using only the 4 tabernacle bolts to
penetrate the overhead, connecting to a flat metal plate atop the
wooden king post. The only other electrical connection to the rig
topside was the VHF radio coax to the antenna, and a smallish wire
(#12?) from the shore power electrical outlet green wire in the
saloon to a portside centre shroud chainplate, which I had
disconnected. A DC system grounding plate is located close to the
engine, and is (naturally) smothered in antifouling. The spreader
light, masthead anchor light and steaming lights will not work if
the antenna is disconnected from the radio. If I ever get a trilight
at the masthead, it will use the same ground. How dare anyone say
this in not the right way to do it?

I admit, it is a case of the cobbler's shoes, and the busman's
holiday. I spend time on the boat to relax, and not to mither about
silly things like paint or electrocution or sinking. I figure, if
God wants to make me into a sparkler or fish food, I ain't gonna do
much about it.

As a comm site chief radio tech, I have seen all the stuff that
engineers do to protect million dollar rotating yagis pushing 10
kilowatts at HF freqs, including CB radio freqs, whom I am told, our
operators might on occasion answer from boredom if hams would ask us
for radio checks, on unauthorised occasions, just for fun, once a
year or so. While we did not to my knowledge actually burn up any
mobile rig receivers or their vehicles, we never got asked twice for
a radio check from local CB'ers. Our only antenna damage ever
suffered was from bird crap and from the winds, which did break one
of our HF yagi spreader arms right down into the dirt.

I think your spreader light setup is just fine.

YMMV.

Terry K