Cockpit lighting - sailing yacht

Sticky Fingers

Sticky Fingers

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 Feb 2004
Messages
7,474
Location
Home Saffron Walden, boat Swanwick.
Visit site
I'm probably not alone in that the ratio of hours spent cockpit lounging to the hours spent sailing is about 99:1. As evenings draw in and the weather remains even vaguely warmish, I like the ambience of a quiet cockpit, a simple meal and a glass of something. As is normal with most yachts we have no lighting in the cockpit and I don't like eating in the dark, so, without ending up like a Croatian party boat I want to add some subtle lighting to the cockpit to provide some controllable light to give ambience and task lighting over the table and seating.

Maybe something under the sprayhood and deck level lights. Prefer something permanently installed, rather than today's solution of an LED torch hanging from the boom.... Ample domestic battery capacity so power supply is not an issue.

Who has what. Any lighting experts in here can help.
 
One of those LED strings which vary the colour with a remote controller. Coiled in a circle, and hoisted like a radar reflector up the backstay .

It probably means something very weird in Colregs.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5089.jpg
    IMG_5089.jpg
    23.6 KB · Views: 23
For your bavaria vision 42 a nice solution are led stripes around the cockpit table pointing downwards. I have seen it on a few bavarias and it looks very nice. But do get warm white colour....
 
Plug a trailing lead into your 240 supply and plug in small LED spotlights with clips on end from Ikea or suchlike for a temporary solution in absence of LED lanterns . For a more designer solution a look at a Dufour Grand large spec will show a nifty plug in lamp complete with shaders available so might be a retro fit option for other makes but clearly it needs a wiring run which might need some work. There are some clever lamps which are held on to sprayhood fabric with magnets on other side of material. A number of cruisers seem to favour solar charged lanterns but battery ones also available but interested as to any solutions you find for the Bimini top .
 
Scala said:
I'm probably not alone in that the ratio of hours spent cockpit lounging to the hours spent sailing is about 99:1. As evenings draw in and the weather remains even vaguely warmish, I like the ambience of a quiet cockpit, a simple meal and a glass of something. As is normal with most yachts we have no lighting in the cockpit and I don't like eating in the dark, so, without ending up like a Croatian party boat I want to add some subtle lighting to the cockpit to provide some controllable light to give ambience and task lighting over the table and seating.

Maybe something under the sprayhood and deck level lights. Prefer something permanently installed, rather than today's solution of an LED torch hanging from the boom.... Ample domestic battery capacity so power supply is not an issue.

Who has what. Any lighting experts in here can help.
Click to expand...

What we did was.........................

Sew a plastic pocket into the sprayhood, port to starboard, then insert a strip of 12 volt, warm white, dimmable LED's, also, we ran the wiring through the stainless steal sprayhood or bimini frame.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
Not a permanent installation, but you can't beat the ambience & colour of the flame from an oil lamp to watch the last of the dusk slipping away.
Click to expand...

Scala said:
If I had an old wooden gaffer then I'd agree, but I've got a plastic boat with electronics and LEDs and a kettle and everything. I want some techy stuff... :)
Click to expand...

I have a plastic boat. I can unroll my RGBWW LED strip attached to an arduino in the cockpit and fade colours over wifi from the command line of my macbook. But I generally don't because it's nothing compared with the lighting from one of these hanging from the boom:

650106-petrolux-480x640.jpg


An oil lamp but hardly "retro"

https://www.calibramarine.com/giftware-and-oil-lamps/petrolux/
 
colind3782 said:
I bought an LED "hurricane lamp" on ebay for £8.99. Does the job and looks the part.
Click to expand...

We had a bunch of those as our emergency lighting for Florida power outages, frequent in hurricane season. Another doubled as cockpiyt lighting on the then benny 36. Now back in UK, we brought these with us and have 3 hanging under the aft deck canvas enclosure. Oors have adjustable dimmer control and are battery powered but a set of batteries last several days/nights at anchor so intermittent cockpit use is no problem at all even without shares in Duracell.
 
I use a battery-powered LED lantern hung from either the boom. However, this is only because I never got round to my original idea, which was to glue a length of warm-white soft-pvc-encapsulated LED strip into the channel on the underneath of the boom. Just a short length, maybe 18" or so, above the middle of the cockpit. I'd run the wiring back down the boom, make the jump to the mast via a short loop of flexible conduit below the gooseneck, then join the other mast cables back to the electrical bay. I already have a panel of switches in the cockpit for working deck lights (which are far too bright for the use in this thread), cockpit and foredeck power sockets, and the windlass, so the boom light could go there.

The battery lantern was a lot easier, though :)

Pete
 
I have a single wheel and binnacle with a 12v waterproof socket into which
I can plug a searchlight or anchor light on flexi cord and the anchor light
can double up as a light under the boom, over the table?
 
We have a solar hanging ceiling light from Ikea (which they don't seem to make anymore) when we want a fair bit of light and it hangs from the Bimini. When we just want ambient light and letting our eyes see the view outside the cockpit we use wax candles with flickering LED wick. This used to cause surprise at a windy anchorage as we sit around a laid cockpit table with apparently lit candles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top