DIY Rowing Equipment: Shell Navigation Lights

February 13, 2013

During our discussions with customers and colleagues, we frequently hear the question “Why don’t you make… insert product here?” Truth be told, there are a lot more products that we could make. Our goal is to provide our customers with the best value for their money, whether that means the lowest price or the best bang for your buck. Part of the reason we do not make some products is that many items can be made for free or for very little money. We intend to add value to our product line by giving you, the customer, ideas for cheap or free products that will save you money for larger, more expensive purchases down the road.

Our first DIY product is a set of navigation lights that can be mounted to rowing shells, coaching launches, or other small watercraft. There are a few problems with the navigation lights currently on the market, including being not bright enough, having lights that are focused in only one direction, and being too heavy. In addition, they are all too expensive!

Here are the instructions to DIY your own navigation lights for less than $40 a piece.

Attwood Marine© sells a set of powerful and lightweight LED bow lights. You can pick up a set from Wal-Mart© for only $29.99. With a few simple modifications, you can outfit these lights for use on the bow clip of a rowing shell.

All you will need from the kit is the green/red light, the mounting clip it uses to attach to the provided clamp, the two shorter mounting screws, the white light and the pole that is used for the white light. The only other materials needed in addition to this kit include: (2) 6” pieces of 1” X 1” X 1/16” aluminum angle, (1) M8 X 60 mm bolt and a tube of thread locker.

Using the mounting clip from the green/red light as a template, drill two 3/16” holes into the center of one side of a 6” length of your aluminum angle. In the other 6” length of aluminum, drill one 5/16” hole into the center of one side. The length of aluminum with two holes is for the red/green light and the length with one hole is for the white light.

Using the two small mounting screws provided with the light kit, attach your green/red light to the aluminum angle with two holes. Using your M8 bolt, attach the white light to the aluminum angle with one hole. For the white light, I would recommend using a thread locker to hold the bolt tight. A lanyard can be added to each light to prevent them from getting lost overboard.

Take your newly made lights and mount them on your boat. The red/green lights go into the bow clip of course, but you will need to mount a second clip to your stern for the white light. I would suggest through bolting the clip to your stern and using fender washers on the underside of the deck to keep the clip from breaking off.