MkII mast head anchor light bulb replacement

[Ted Pounds]

If she goes up there ask her to bring a camera (with a strap of course).  I used to get great shots from the masthead.   

[John Langford]

My life time of experience suggests that - in general - girlfriends are much more enthusiastic about boating adventures and chores than wives. Luckily, I managed to nab one of the rare exceptions. On one occasion, Kate was actually in the bosun's chair ready to go up the mast underway in the middle of the Strait of Georgia to free a stuck spinnaker halyard - and this was after we got married. Remarkable! Luckily, the halyard came free just as I started to haul her up.

[Roc]

John,
Out of curiosity, I noticed on the Superbright LED site that they have another bulb, 1156-CW45-T at 290 lumens vs. 120 for the one you purchased.  Wondered why you chose the one with the lower output.  The mA difference is 290 mA vs. 175mA, still a small amount of power use.

By the way, they have the 1156-CW18-T listed for $17.95

Thanks!

[John Langford]

The answer is that I didn't see the other one. Or perhaps they didn't have it available when I did this last year.

[Roc]

I installed this LED bulb over the weekend, 1156-CW-45T.  It seems to be equal in brightness to the original anchor light.  I happened to read the latest Mainsheet Tech Sheet yesterday, and someone was talking about EMI given off by LED bulbs.  So I'm wondering if this bulb will interfere with the VHF since the mast top antenna is right next to it.  I'll have to check that out next time I'm at the boat.  The Mainsheet article talked about Marinebeam.com as the supplier for that bulb used, which is marine tested and won't interfere based on standard testing (whatever that truly means).  By the way, the 1156 base fits the anchor light receptacle perfectly.


http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&category=CAR&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2F115x-x45-T.htm