transom lighting

[TBarCYa]

I'm thinking of adding lights to the transom of my Maxum 1800MX so that we have some light if/when swimming from the stern at night. I've seen underwater lights for hundreds to thousands of dollars and it's not really worth that much especially considering that I'm not planning for them to be underwater but they will get wet. Basically, in the attached pic, there's a cave under the rubrail where the drive is that you can kinda see in the pic. I want to put them pointing down towards the water and if possible angled astern.



Here are links to two lights that I'm considering, both are waterproof except that the trailer light is surface mount and the other is flush mount. I'm thinking that the surface mount "trailer light" may be better since it's only 3 small holes that are required which are going to be easier to seal / repair if needed than huge holes for flush mount lights.

http://www.iboats.com/Seasense-LED-...18851522--**********.361855538--view_id.56664

http://www.iboats.com/Hella-LED-Sli...8851522--**********.361855538--view_id.258901

I just thought of a potential problem with my mounting location... Will the light penetrate the surface of the water to illuminate the drive and/or swimmers or just bounce off?

 

[Beefer]

Re: transom lighting

Most likely it will just bounce off. Any idea of the wattage on those things? I use a Perko transom light for stern illumination when swimming.

 

[TBarCYa]

Re: transom lighting

I'm not sure of the wattage, but the Seasense utility strip lights are "totally waterproof" and should be able to be mounted underwater and since my boat is trailered, exposure will be much less than a boat that lives on the water. For the price, two of the 8" mounted low on the transom will probably be the way I'll go. For recreational use, and occasional use at that, I can't really justify spending a couple hundred per light... Up until now, I don't think I've ever gone night swimming off the boat so it's likely that they'll see very little use.

Neat to have anyway tho for the price.

 

['78 Crusader]

Re: transom lighting

I installed Underwater LEDs and they light up the water wonderfully!!

www.coastalnightlights.com is where I got mine from.