My bow lights are out on my 23 year old 17 foot center console. I was working on trying to fix them today and long story short, I found out that the wiring between the center console and the bow is totally corroded. I tried pulling the old wire out to no avail. It almost looks like the wiring was cast in to the keel of the boat. Has anyone ever had experience with something like this. I would like to get it fixed before shrimping season but I may end up just going with a battery powered light. I may be able to snake it through a cavity in the hull but I would like to run it through the existing path if at all possible. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
Might help to say what brand boat it is. Wire that is 23 years old can easily swell up from corrosion. If it looks like it is not tied to any other lines (gas or electric) just pull it hard and steady and see what happens. Of course, tie and tape your new wire to the opposite end before it breaks loose and gets lost. If it worries you to pull it out, leave it. Run your new wire and it would be good for the NEXT 23 years.
It’s a Malibu. I’m 100% positive that it isn’t tied to any other lines. I don’t think I can run new line because I can’t get it down in the hole where this line come out. I may need to do a little bit of work with the dremel making the hole a little bigger.
See if you can run a fish tape through there. I had to run a new line from my bow to the console last year and when I did, I ran a piece of nylon line and left it there just in case.
we regularly install new nav lights on the side of the console, and elimate the need for the wire up front.
I’m now at www.teamcharlestonmarine.com
^^ So just put a green light on one side and a red light on the other?
quote:See if this helps. http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/060199tip5.htm
Originally posted by Folly^^ So just put a green light on one side and a red light on the other?
Question for you Chris V. I had thought about putting nav lights on either side of my console because when I put my trolling motor on, it blocks my starboard nav light. Is it legal (advisable) to put nav lights on my console and leave the one on the bow?
I am also curious about this.
not sure about the legality of having 2 sets of nav lights, but you can put them on the console, and just not use the one on the bow.
lots of boats have lights in places other than on the bow, sporty’s, large and small usually have them on the side of the bridge
I’m now at www.teamcharlestonmarine.com
There are some visibility requirements that come into play so the lights themselves may be more important than the location. If you want to run wires to the bow of that old Malibu you might try to run it under the rub rail. If the rail has an insert you can remove the insert on one side of the boat and run the wire under it, then drill a hole at the front for the wire to run under the deck to the bow light. I’ve done that a few times on the old Whalers. Talk about no access…
In the boating industry for over thirty years.
Use your Dremel and cut a small inspection hatch mid-way, use a steel fish to pull your wires thru, also tie a piece of decoy cord along with the new wires. you now have replaced your wires and have a cord for the future for pulling more wires. Good Luck
Finseeker Fishing Team
32’ Fountain
“ALCOHOL,TOBACCO,AND FIREARMS should be a convienience store, not a Gov. agency.”
No problem with multiple nav light setups on a boat, as long as only one set is on at one time and each side light is visible from dead ahead to 22 1/2 degrees “abaft the beam” (0deg. to 112deg)
Russ B.
Psalm 55:22
The amount of knowledge on this board is absolutely incredible. I had no idea that anyone would have ever heard of that boat, much less have a fix for it. So the consensus is there is no way the wire was cast into the fiberglass? There should be a wireway that runs from the bow to the stern?
I’ve mentioned it before on this forum but the boat has sentimental value to me. It was my granddad’s and he taught me how to fish out of the boat. He bought the boat in 86 and kept it till he couldn’t handle it any more because his knees were so bad. He gave it to my dad back in 96 and it hasn’t been used a lot since and then he died in 02. When I moved down here a year ago I started fixing it up. Slowly but surely I’m getting there but it’s a 1 step forward two steps back kind of situation. I’m trying to redo all the electrical before shrimping season but this is going to set me back a bit. It probably isn’t worth all the money I’m putting in to it but for $1000 or so I’ll have a decent fishing boat, and it doesn’t have to be pretty to catch fish/shrimp.
Thanks for all the advice and wish me luck. I’m going to try messing with it tomorrow and will let you know.
quote:
............. we regularly install new nav lights on the side of the console, and elimate the need for the wire up front.
It may be legal to install navigation lights on the side of the console, but you have to consider the posibility of them being blocked from view by passengers on the boat.
Legality is important, but more important is that other boaters can see your boat and determine which way it is headed. It’s a safety issue.
Ron
2000 Camano Troll
North Charleston, SC
The c/p below comes from the SC DNR site. I hope it helps.
It also had an image showing nav. lights on the console.
• Red and green sidelights visible from a distance of at least two miles away—or if less than 39.4 feet long, at least one mile away—on a dark, clear night.
if thats the kind of malibu i think/hope it is…you got a good boat. my cousin has a boat like that and the nav’s on the side of the console look pretty good. and less trouble to wire.
ft worry.
Folly,
If your boat is what I am thinking of, it is the same as mine, or VERY similar. Mine is a 1982 Malibu (made by Dixie Craft), v-hull, center console. Half height fore casting deck, cooler seat with teak swing back, supports. Dry well on the aft, starboard side, live well on the aft, port. You may still have that huge bow rail on yours. I took mine off five years ago. Mine is a brown color but I have seen other that were blue.
Fortunately my bow light wires are in decent shape but I am thinking of upgrading and will run new wiring when the weather cools down. however, I like the idea of changing to console lighting, may think about that for a while.
j
“I’ve said my peace and counted to three”
I didn’t realize it was such a popular boat. Mine is a 1986 Malibu (also made by Dixie Craft) exactly the same as what you describe above. My granddad bought it new in 1986 and one of the first things he did was remove the railing.
I didn’t get around to working on the wiring this week because my brother in law is getting married on Saturday and we’ve been busy with wedding stuff all week. I’m hoping to get to it next week but the opening of dove season is Saturday so most of my spare time is going to be spent shooting poor defenseless little animals out of the sky with my 20 gauge Remington 1100.
I actually bought a Hella Marine 4-switch panel that I’m going to install as well. I’m planning on putting in a removable spreader light pole for shrimping so I’m going to run that as one circuit, nav lights as one circuit, a bilge pump as one circuit, and I’m going to put in a pump to fill the live well as the last circuit. (as you may now, the live well only fills to about 6 inches; I’m going to set it up so it fills all the way and I don’t have to mess around with minnow buckets any more)
Yep, when I first bought it the previous owner had it set up shallow. But he did wire in a bilge pump inside the live well and piped it so he could recirculate the water. From there I installed a common garden y-valve to the bilge output. One hose from the y-valve goes to the aerator pipes and the other goes to a through hull fitting near the top of the live well. I had to drill a hole for that. I also installed a raw water pump that fills the live well. So now I can fill it with a ■■■■■ of a switch instead of pulling the plug. When I want to empty it or put in fresh water, I just turn the appropriate knob on the y valve and pump the old water out using the bilge pump and then fill it with the raw water pump.
Enjoy your boat, I sure like mine.
j
“I’ve said my peace and counted to three”