Masthead tri-colour help

MJWB

MJWB

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Got the mast down for some work and inspection. One thing is to change the masthead combined tri-colour/anchor light unit. My Perko example is old (perhaps original), poorly fitted and was being held together with self amalgamating tape or something like it. Whilst the mast is down I intend to change it to an LED unit.
  1. Am considering the Hella NaviLED unit, but not made up my mind and am open to ideas as this is very much a learning curve. Has any one changed to LED units and would give me the benefit of their experience please? One thing I'm wondering about is the fact that the footprint of the new one won't coincide with the footprint of the old and how best to cope with that.
  1. In my novice haste to get the old one off, I omitted to note how the core wires in the mast cable up from deck level were connected into the masthead unit. It's a three wire system with entirely separate tri-colour and anchor light switches down below on the panel. I'm hoping I don't have to re-run the mast cable and can just re-connect to that in situ already. Can anyone please tell me which colours in the cable up from the deck to masthead connect to -ve, to tri-colour +ve and to anchor light +ve? I'm assuming that's how it works.
    Many thanks indeed.
 
Recently fitted a NASA Marine LED tricolour and all round white.
I used the existing cable which was a three core, but the NASA only uses two core as the different lights are achieved by reversing the polarity in the switch, so just blanked off the third unused wire.
In my case the original masthead unit, black was common red was tri and green was all round white, but that may have been the preference of whoever fitted the original unit, now with the NASA unit only the black and red is used (Green is terminated).
My previous boat had a Lopolight LED tri/all round white and used black for common red for tri and green for all round white.
With the mast down a cheap multimeter will help to identify the wires relatively easily.
 
If the wire is like 3 core household flex cable i would assume the earth to be the negative. The other 2 you will have to test and find out. If the wire is old and corroded I would replace whilst the mast is down.
 
You should be able to identify the common return at the plug and socket at the base of the mast ideally using a meter. Confusing the deck plugs usually show that larger pin as +, but that should be the common negative, (maybe some strange boating administration uses positive return like the old great western region did)

Use that colour as common return to top of mast. Match the other colours also and take a guess as to which is which at the top on the grounds that if you get it wrong by inspection when the mast is up and lamp lit its a trivial matter to swap anchor and tri wires around at mast base or better still the switch panel.

Like others I have used the Nasa combined unit in the past and was very happy with it though I rewired the switches to use separate one for each lamp rather than polarity changer switch as provided by Nasa
 
Definitely replace the cable whilst the mast is down, using 1.5mm TINNED 3 core cable. I scrapped the deck 3 pin plug as it always gave problems, so fitted an Index deck gland, with a large enough hole for a connector, fed the cable behind the head lining with a connector nearby. Very easy to disconnect if the mast is lowered in the future.
 
MJWB said:
Got the mast down for some work and inspection. One thing is to change the masthead combined tri-colour/anchor light unit. My Perko example is old (perhaps original), poorly fitted and was being held together with self amalgamating tape or something like it. Whilst the mast is down I intend to change it to an LED unit.
  1. Am considering the Hella NaviLED unit, but not made up my mind and am open to ideas as this is very much a learning curve. Has any one changed to LED units and would give me the benefit of their experience please? One thing I'm wondering about is the fact that the footprint of the new one won't coincide with the footprint of the old and how best to cope with that.

  1. In my novice haste to get the old one off, I omitted to note how the core wires in the mast cable up from deck level were connected into the masthead unit. It's a three wire system with entirely separate tri-colour and anchor light switches down below on the panel. I'm hoping I don't have to re-run the mast cable and can just re-connect to that in situ already. Can anyone please tell me which colours in the cable up from the deck to masthead connect to -ve, to tri-colour +ve and to anchor light +ve? I'm assuming that's how it works.
    Many thanks indeed.
Click to expand...

No one can tell you which wire is doing what, they can't even tell you what cable is being used and what colours there might be. It's totally pointless anyone guessing.

As suggested, replace the cable with some 1.5mm tinned, three core cable. |Use the black as negative and red/green for the anchor and tri-colour. I always use red for the tricolour, but it doesn't matter which you use really. A multimeter at the deck will tell you which is which.

I'd also fit a gland at the deck, Index marine would be a good choice.
 
I fitted the Hella led tricolour and anchor light. It was very straightforward with the mast down. I replaced the original ‘household’ 2.5mm twin and earth flex with tinned 1.5mm. 3core. As well as modernising the lights there is also a weight saving to be had in reducing the cable size
 
Crazy not to reach the cable with tinned copper while the nast is down. My opinion is that you don't need an all round whit at the top of the mast. Much easier to see an anchor light in the fore triangle and so much safer plus one less thing to go wrong. Simple tricolour at the masthead us all you need. I use my deck level nav light almost exclusively in coastal waters.
 
Euphonyx said:
Crazy not to reach the cable with tinned copper while the nast is down. My opinion is that you don't need an all round whit at the top of the mast. Much easier to see an anchor light in the fore triangle and so much safer plus one less thing to go wrong. Simple tricolour at the masthead us all you need. I use my deck level nav light almost exclusively in coastal waters.
Click to expand...

I have found my masthead all round white invaluable when rowing back after an evening in the club/pub, it's much easier to focus on the all round white at the masthead than any light down at pulpit level which can disappear as the boat swings around at anchor.
With LED's much more reliable, although in years of sailing only ever had to replace one bulb in the masthead fitting.
 
Last edited:
Oh yes one more thing. I'm going to be left with redundant screw holes on the top of the mast. I'd like to fill these. Will end up with a lot of unused if I buy a cartridge gun sized tube. Anyone know of a suitable sealant in small convenient tubes please?
Or something with a long shelf life once opened? Or both? :)
 
MJWB said:
Oh yes one more thing. I'm going to be left with redundant screw holes on the top of the mast. I'd like to fill these. Will end up with a lot of unused if I buy a cartridge gun sized tube. Anyone know of a suitable sealant in small convenient tubes please?
Or something with a long shelf life once opened? Or both? :)
Click to expand...

It's not essential to fill the holes.
 
MJWB said:
Oh yes one more thing. I'm going to be left with redundant screw holes on the top of the mast. I'd like to fill these. Will end up with a lot of unused if I buy a cartridge gun sized tube. Anyone know of a suitable sealant in small convenient tubes please?
Or something with a long shelf life once opened? Or both? :)
Click to expand...

Filled the redundant holes at the top of my mast with Plastic Padding, but as MJWB not really essential.
 
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