Masthead lamp issues

[GA-Midnight Cruise]

Okay friends. Could use some help here. After surveying my newly acquired 2003 R21 Classic, I found that nearly all of the rivets in the mast were freely corroding and needed replacing. Note, this is a traditional type mast, identical to a sailboat. I've seen a mast failure before and the consequences are not pretty. No question, old rivets had to go. All were drilled, chisled and removed. The forestay, port and starboard stays, as well as lamp and VHF antenna mounts all have shiney new rivets and is now good as new. Cleaned out the cob webs in the masthead lamp and anchor lamp at the very top of the mast. Recrimped the ends of the stays, Polished the mast, and stainless hardware. A very pretty site at night time when illuminated. I have two connectors for the mast and anchor lamps that plug into the top of the pilot house that comes out of the mast right at the roofline that are connected when the mast is raised. One is a two pole connector for the top anchor light, the other is a 3 pole for the 25 Series, Aqua Signal, masthead combination lamp. This is a mast lamp and foredeck combination lamp. The problem is that when I turn on my running lights, instead of the mast lamp coming on, the foredeck is illuminated instead. Furthermore, from an accessory rocker switch, the masthead lamp will come on?? Am I correct to say that the auxillary swich should illuminate the foredeck instead and the masthead lamp should come on with the running lights? Also, there are small LED looking lights on top of and around the gunwale. I have another accessory switch that doesn't seem to work anything. I suspect this should be for these gunwale LED lights? For the rest of the boat, the top paint is polishing up nicely. The boat was in fresh water its entire life and the bottom paint is falling off down to the blister coat. (Next project). Not a sign of any blistering despite the environment is was in for the last 10 years. I credit Ranger Tugs for their craftsmanship and methods in laying up the hull. The good news is the prep work wont be as tedious. Any guidance on the lights is appreciated.

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

I'll take a stab at the LED looking gunwale lights you've mentioned and hopefully an R21 owner will correct or verify what I state. On our R27 we have these same type of lights and they are lit up when the boat is trailered and the boat wiring harness (located in our chain locker) is connected to the trailer wire harness. On our boat, and I admit it may be different on your R21, when we're trailering our boat this connection provides additional lighting to your boat for better visibilty as you're moving down the road. Do you have such a wiring harness in your chain locker? Let us know what the final answer is.

Jim F

 

[GA-Midnight Cruise]

Ah ha! Jim, you nailed it on the gunwhale lights. Thank you. In my travels, I left behind my trailer literature in a hotel room. Fortuneatly I had already registered the trailer in GA befor loosing the documents. Was wondering what that wiring harness was for and yes, the receptacle on my R21is mounted near the chain locker.