fishie1 wrote:Q1: On a [1986 MONTAUK 17 boat] was the original wiring from the factory [for control of the navigation lamps] installed as I will describe below?
A1: the electrical circuit described in your narrative sounds appropriate. The dash panel switch provides two separately switched circuits for the positive circuit or the (+) or the "plus" as you call it. One of these switched circuit controls the white all-round lamp; the second circuit controls the sidelights lamp(s). The negative or common or minus (-) circuit (as you variously call it) is usually not at all involved in the switch action, and it is just a branch circuit of the battery negative that is not switched or disconnected in any position of the switch controlling the navigation lamps circuits.
fishie1 wrote:Does this setup sound correct?
A2: Typically Boston Whaler or any competent marine electrician would not leave electrical wiring exposed to the open air and to splash or rain if there were a splice connection between conductors. Nor would they make a connection between three conductors with a splice. The normal good practice in marine wiring would be to provide a terminal strip to join conductors involved in the circuitry. The terminal strip would be protected from splash or rain by a plastic cover. The cover would be oriented with an opening for the conductors to enter at the bottom to allow for any water that does intrude to drain out. In the case where the cover would be visible and in the boat cockpit area, the cover would have a color that matched the color of the gel coat on the hull where the cover was installed.
An electrical junction box installed by an owner in the process of refurbishing an older Boston Whaler boat.
Photo credit: dtmackeyThe location for access to the wiring for illuminating the combined sidelight lamp on a Boston Whaler MONTAUK 17 hull is typically as you describe, that is, located near the transom on the inwale of the cockpit molded part, and at about the height of the rub rail. The side, port or starboard, seems to vary; on starboard seems the most common.
The switch at the helm that will control illumination of navigation lighting will typically be a specialized three-position switch with detents for OFF, ANCHOR, UNDERWAY. In OFF all lamps are extinguished, In ANCHOR only the white all-round lamp is illuminated. In UNDERWAY the combined sidelights lamp and white all-round lamp are illuminated. See my article (mentioned below) for details of the switch likely to be found in a c.1986 boat made by Boston Whaler.
fishie1 wrote:Q3: Were these connections originally enclosed in some manner?
A3: Yes. See my reply in A2 above.
The details of the electrical circuit are provided in an article I wrote that is in the REFERENCE section. You may find that the article and its schematic diagram of the wiring may be useful. As a general rule the description of electrical circuits using a narrative is somewhat awkward and becomes impossible for circuits any more complex than a source, a switch, and a load. See
Also, if your boat has a combined sidelights lamp at the bow, there is likely only one electric lamp inside the housing. The single lamp illuminates both the PORT and STARBOARD lights using a two-color lens. The MONTAUK model would typically have a combined sidelights lamp at the bow.
NOMENCLATURE
There is no navigation light called a "bowlight". There are navigation lamps called sidelights that produce red or green light according to which side of the boat they show on. In certain categories of small power boats the two sidelight lamps can be combined into a single bi-color lamp and be located at the bow.
Many boaters incorrectly think the name of this combined bi-color lamp is "bowlight." But there are no navigation lamps referred to with that name. In actual practice, lights being shown at the bow are subject to certain prohibitions because they can interfere with the proper navigation light to be shown there.
With regard to navigation lighting, the LIGHT is what is emitted from the LAMP or LANTERN and is seen by other boats. The lamp or lantern produces the light in the specified intensity, color, and arc of visibility as required. The light is what is seen when the lamp or lantern is ILLUMINATED. Inside the lamp or lantern there is usually a miniature electric LIGHT BULB, or perhaps in some modern lamps an LED bulb. The lamp or lantern shows no light when it is EXTINGUISHED.
DC WIRING PRACTICE
With DC power on boats the positive circuit is always the switched circuit and the switch controls a load. The negative circuit is not switched and is common to all loads, with some exceptions where the load is part of a sensitive instrumentation circuit and has its own isolated negative circuit to avoid any influence from other currents in a common negative circuit.
The reason to switch the positive circuit on boats is related to reduction of galvanic corrosion so as not to leave the battery positive circuit connected to any conductor on the boat which could be in contact with the sea.
The notion of a ground circuit on a boat is somewhat nebulous. The only ground is the sea. Generally the battery negative is bonded to the sea through a submerged electrical contact. In the case of outboard engines that contact is typically the exposed sacrificial anodes of the outboard engine. On boats with steel or aluminum hulls, the conductive hull is still not used for carrying any DC current due to concerns about corrosion.
As a general rule in all electrical power distribution a ground circuit never should carry any current related to a load. The ground is there as a protective circuit or a shielding circuit or as a bonding circuit. Reference to electrical power distribution on a boat with the term "ground" for the wired portion of the negative circuit is not particularly correct usage. The negative circuit is wired with a dedicated conductor that is distinct from any "ground" conductor.