Replacing Yamaha SX230 Bow Light with Seasense Stainless LED

[Bruce]

Total cost <$50, total time ~15 minutes. Parts needed; bow light, 2 x male quick disconnects red, 2x #8 x 1 1/4" stainless screws.

I replaced the single bulb in my bow light with a LED last month. On the way to watch fourth of July fireworks the lake patrol pulled me over and said that my bow light looked red and blue instead of red and green. I believe that the LED bulb was too powerful and was overwhelming the green filter.

The plastic bow light was a little worn and I prefer to only have LED lights so I decided to replace it. After looking at available options I decided that I preferred the flat top of the $41 Seasense Led Combination Stainless Steel Bow Light, 12 Volt to the factory design. It seems like it would be much more pleasant if you stepped on it.

Another option that appears to be the same format as the factory bow light is the $26 Attwood LED 1-Mile Deck Mount Navigation Bow Side Light.

The Seasense unit is a 2 mile rated light. It contains 10 red and 10 green LEDs so a single bulb failure would not be an issue. Unfortunately it is just a little bit too large for the mount point on my SX230 and the third screw mount point is over an area cut out at the factory. But I believe it that it looks ok mounted despite the size issue.

The Seasense light has pry points at the front and back on the bottom to remove the stainless cover. Inside you will find the screw to lock it together. It is installed with the stainless cover removed then the stainless cover is installed as the last step. I soldered quick connects to the new bow lights wires and plugged it into the factory harness. Crimping would be fine, but I really would not want the crimp to fail. I was able to reuse the two factory screws holes. I used a drill to enlarge them to 1/8" then screwed down the bow light. The bow light is designed to have a third screw holding it down. This screw is in an area where the factory hole sawed a large hole for the wiring to pass through. If I decide the third screw is needed I will install it with a toggle bolt.

Here is a better picture taken with daylight.



Here are some pictures of it installed. I will add outdoor pictures later. Someday I may grab a ladder and remove the disco lighting





This is the light cast on my garage door



I believe the fit is fine. I asked @Rana for her opinion before installing and she liked it.

I am very happy with output of the light. I would prefer to have our boat as visible as possible at night while sticking to the regulations on what kinds of lighting should be where.

 

[Lspeedss]

I like it

 

[Glassman]

Very enlightening!

 

[PEARCE]

I've been thinking about doing this upgrade. If my lights go out I probably will do a chrome replacement with LEDS. Thanks for posting this.

Is that your garage at home with the resisted can lights? I like the look. Very clean. Liking the disco lights too.

 

[Bruce]

Is that your garage at home with the resisted can lights? I like the look. Very clean. Liking the disco lights too.

Yes, our garage is a walk out basement. There is a two car bay and storm shelter on one side and 40' x 15' bay where the boat is. I built the house and discovered that can lights are an inexpensive and attractive way to light a house. An electrician charges around $40 per can light. But installing them yourself they are around $10 each including trim and (cheap) bulb. Mine have LED bulbs which doubled the cost. There are 18 in that room. They were installed on rolling scaffolding. I believe the install and wiring time was only a couple of hours. After sheet rock and paint I might have spent another hour installing trim and bulbs.

The disco lights are left over from a party where 12 of the can lights were converted to black lights and 6 were converted to LED disco lights. I have not swapped the bulbs in the row of lights closest to the door.

 

[cwoav8r]

@Bruce I am definitely doing that... thanks for the heads up.

X2 on the disco lights... I can't bring myself to take mine down in the garage... sometimes I'm in that kind of mood.

 

[Gym]

@Bruce I am definitely doing that... thanks for the heads up.

X2 on the disco lights... I can't bring myself to take mine down in the garage... sometimes I'm in that kind of mood.

Ya mean you get out the BIG collered shirts and do the John Travolta thing? Cool.

 

[Lspeedss]

What? Who? Disco...? I'm not old enough to know the reference or have blocked all of that out...Thank God for Heavy Metal!!

 

[Joe Covelli]

Great idea, I like the low profile look of SS Seasence light. This will go on my winter to-do list.

 

[cwoav8r]

Ya mean you get out the BIG collered shirts and do the John Travolta thing? Cool.

Uh no... from now on we shall call them "Dance Club Lights"

 

[mgabsa]

This is a very helpful post. On the 2012 LS, using the bow ladder requires climbing over the bow nav light. It is plastic and very cheap. Someone has managed to pull off the top of the factory red/green bow light.

I have since installed grab handles at the anchor locker, but; did not mess with the bow light. Knowing this low profile light will fit and looks great, this will be the switch out for me.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[su laxplayer21]

Looks great, I wish they made it in all white plastic. Is it sitting completely flush and sealing properly?

 

[Zarrella]

@Bruce
I think you should have mounted the disco light to the bow instead!

 

[Bruce]

@Bruce
I think you should have mounted the disco light to the bow instead!

Those are in the cupholders

 

[Bruce]

Looks great, I wish they made it in all white plastic. Is it sitting completely flush and sealing properly?

It is sitting flush and sealed. I like the stainless look and occasionally step on it.

 

[su laxplayer21]

I finally got around to installing my Attwood 2nm Nav light. It absolutely blows away the stock 2nm incandescent that was in there. The new Attwood is slightly smaller but not noticeably. I strongly advise getting the Attwood in the 2nm visibility over the 1nm one it's significantly brighter... i'd say twice as bright haha

 

[Dwain Oliver]

I changed the stock light on our 2005 SX230 to the West Marine 2NM LED and it was so bright you could not see past it at night. A lot of light was reflected back off of the hull where the light is mounted, we had to lay a life vest over it.

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--bi-color-bow-lights--15761570?recordNum=8

 

[Bruce]

I changed the stock light on our 2005 SX230 to the West Marine 2NM LED and it was so bright you could not see past it at night. A lot of light was reflected back off of the hull where the light is mounted, we had to lay a life vest over it.

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--bi-color-bow-lights--15761570?recordNum=8

View attachment 47192

Interesting, it looks like the same design as the 2 NM bow light that I used. I do not have any light reflection issues and often boat on new moon nights for stargazing. My guess is that there must be a sufficient difference in the 2005 and 2007 bow shape to cause the reflection or there must have been a difference in mounting.

 

[Bill D]

@Dwain Oliver if you would like to dim the LED, you could insert a resistor in the circuit. I'm not sure what size resistor you would need, but to achieve the light level you are looking for, you may have to try a couple different ones. Just guessing, something in the 220 - 460 ohm range may work. 1/2 watt should also meet the requirements of the light.

 

[Dwain Oliver]

It looks like it does sit lower on the 2005. The ridge in the hull design catches a lot of light.


We have the SX230 for sale, we bought a 16 242LS. I'm including the factory light so the new owner can put it back if they wish.