My new 36’ tournament fisherman is without any nav lights and I’m considering my options. I anchor a lot and will need a good anchor light that is separate from the nav lights. I operate in NY harbor and need strong nav lights to be seen by ships, ferries etc, but I also care about the style of the fixtures so they should look good on a Commander.
Curious to other 36’ owners (or similar), WHERE exactly ARE your port/starboard nav lights mounted? Factory? Where is your mast light mounted or do you use your anchor light as a mast light? The stern light is easy and im pretty clear on that, so my questions are really around, front nav; red, green, white/anchor.
I’m interested in mounting to the hull or lower deckhouse, NOT interested in mounting to flybridge (more on that later).
This question would apply to other Commanders with a similar broken sheer higher bow, like the 35 or other fishers… I remember my old 38 had the nav lights mounted in the port lights which was cool, but that is not an option on the 36 TF.
Per the guidelines my 36 falls below the 39ft requirement but I think I’d like to still meet that “over 39ft” standard including a stern light.
How are your nav lights configured?
Member Glenn Feihaur (sp?) has that config of 36. I have his info if hes not registered yet. Let me know. (He owned my new boat)
My port and starboard running lights are right behind the first porthole window. Surprised your boat came out of the factory without running lights. My center white light in mounted in the front bow rail and the aft white light is mounted center on transom.
@Craig Collins thank you that is awesome having that pic. My boat has been painted and they filled the holes and hadn't installed the lights yet, I think I'll probably match yours.
in front of portholes and in the bow rail ('69 35')
@Whitney Pillsbury Let me know if you need more pictures. I'm sure I have more somewhere on my phone or computer.
On my 35 they are in front of the fwd cabin windows.
I should have a a few sets of those or similar if your interested
Would love to hear why they removed them and filled the holes. Wonder if the wires are still there. V berth panels removeable? Our 35SC had the anchor light coming out of the front of the fly bridge. It was a cruiser style "Jetson" on a pole set on an angle long enough to be above the top of the bridge. I think I have an extra light but no pole. Pole was aluminum. I believe the original red and whites can still be purchased new. If not, they can be found used.
@Michael Watson I believe they did an extensive full paint job, which i'm grateful for and don't mind being able to make this decision, but not sure about the vberth panels and access, or wiring, more shall be revealed. I did buy this jetson style 'mastlight'? for the top, per the original drawings this looked like something they might have had on top of the hardtop? These pictures of placements are incredibly helpful, thanks everyone for posting!!
Considering these as replacements for the forward nav lights, both require cutting a decent size hole in the hull which i'm not thrilled about, the other surface mount ones only require a small hole for the wire but these seem to require a relatively small cutout for the fixture to be below the surface of the hull... so i reallly want to get the placement right~
That is the light I have. Not sure about the base. Unless someone added a hardtop to the fly you'll need to come up with a different base.
Yes to the paint job. Our 47 was fully painted years ago and still shows little age. Easy to maintain. That said, there was no reason to fill the light holes. Oh, well. Boats
The boat was painted with awlcraft and the original navigation lights were on the lower corner, each side of the fly bridge. Stern light in the transom. Anchor light on the front of the flybridge. Every screw hole and wire hole on the boat was filled and re-drilled as needed. Every surface on the boat was painted. It was a six year project that I am very familiar with the NAV light project was never completed because the light choices could never be ironed out. Hope this will answer your question Michael.
@Lee Dahlen I'm discussing solutions that are NOT mounted to a flybridge🙄. The stern light is easy peazy, and the anchor/masthead seems solved, i'm just brainstorming the bow configuration of the forward nav lights on similar boats... seems like they originally had them mounted right behind for forward portlight?
I knew this. But I was answering why the holes were filled as asked. I have an idea for you but ill email it
This was the original configuration from the owner. Also the first picture I took of her before the refit. This was the original owner from new who was the father of the “previous owner” who just sold the boat. Hope this helps to document some history. There were no nav lights on the lower helm. They were all on the bridge (zoom in) except the stern light (transom)
@Lee Dahlen you’re right, this boat didn’t have them on the hull and many others seems had the lights mounted on the side of the flybridge near the blue stripe, per the catalogue shots… by ‘they’ I meant Chris-Craft - they had originally had them on that drawing of the hardtop version on the hull and sometimes installed them on the hull, just behind the port light. Wonder if they actually shipped any boats without the flybridge.
Keep in mind this particular hull ID was what I call an “inbetween “ two diff companies. Keel laid in 73 and finished in 75. Probably a design change after Murray (or whoever was the cch HIN) took over? Idk.