LET THERE BE LIGHT... Another boat mystery solved!

A big part of the enjoyment I've had in owning The Ripple so far has been figuring out how things work. Now, I've been around sailboats for a large portion of my life: dinghies from a young age and keel-boats (well, specifically ONE keel-boat) since I was about 22. So I like to think I at least "know the ropes" per say about sailing and how boats works. That said, actually OWNING a boat has proved to be pretty exciting as I find more and more new things.

Yesterday was a perfect example.

So when I bought my boat, the previous owner briefly walked me through the 12-volt electrical system. During my viewing, he switched the battery selector on, flipped the "cabin lights" breaker, and presto, all the cabin lights came on, along with two small electric fans.

One of the cabin lights

In my head I went, "OK, that's simple enough... But odd that ALL the lights are on one switch. What if you only want the lights in the v-berth to come on? And does this mean that fan comes on every time you want light? That seems silly."

However, rather than ask about all that like a normal person, I somehow skipped over it. Peg it up to being somewhat overwhelmed by the whole boat buying process I guess. 

Anyway, for the past 2 months I just assumed all that was the case. Lights were all or nothing. This Sunday, I decided to at least fix two burned out bulbs and see how hard it would be to wire some switches onto each light. Easy enough, right?

The light above the galley was one which I thought the bulbs were dead. So, off came the light cover, in go two new bulbs, on goes the power... no light. 

"What the heck? These bulbs are brand new..."

Double check the wattage of the bulbs. Same. Hmm.

To isolate the problem, I decided to take some bulbs from a working light and swap them in. So I take the cover off a working light, pull the bulbs, swap them over, flip the power... nothing.

*scratches head*

I then put the new bulbs in the working light, flip the power... nothing... Working bulbs back in the working light... NOTHING

"OK WTF is going on here..."

Assuming I was not actually cursed to the point that everything I touch stops working, I knew I had to be missing something... and I was.

Light internals... Note the little metal tab at the bottom

The covers. In my attempts to expedite the testing process, I was replacing bulbs, but not putting the plastic covers back on the light before testing them. I was assuming they were just cosmetic, like a lamp shade.

Turns out, through some rather clever German engineering, the plastic cover itself works as a switch on these lights. Sliding the whole cover left and right allows you to illuminate one light, two lights, or no lights. But if the cover isn't on, the circuit doesn't connect and nothing happens. 

One light, two light, red light, blue light.

Also means I can turn off the electric fans when I don't want them. Pretty sweet. Only took me 2 months to figure it out! Haha.

Now to get that old tape deck outta there and wire in a 2nd battery...

The learning continues.