Navigation Lights

[MangoCats]

Did the 303 come with standard (or factory optional) navigation lights?

My 1984 303 came to me with a 3-AAA battery powered LED puck that locks into the bow pulpit - while I admire the simplicity and efficiency of the solution, it feels ... cheesy ... to me.

[admin]

The Pearson 303 documentation shows that USCG approved running lights were part of the standard equipment.  Anchor light was listed as optional.

[Alma]

If you have hull side lights they were once approved but when sailing and heeled over one is always hidden.

You are much better off with a LED combination red/green mounted to your bow pulpit.

You can run the wires through the pulpit and into the vee berth through the deck. Be sure to waterproof the deck core if you pierce the deck for wires.

I installed a combination light and just last week followed up with home made aluminum plates to block off the holes in the bow where the old rusted so-called stainless hull lights lived...

If you go this route be sure to plan a way to mount the combination light in a way a little collision with a piling won't scrape it off- Mine is vulnerable to being scrubbed off...

[MangoCats]

I wonder if the two dock line guides I have up very near the bow replaced the original lights...  I haven't used them yet, they are so far forward the way we tie off our lines go straight to the cleats that are much easier to reach.

For now, it's much easier, and even cheaper, to stock spare AAAs than to run wires and new lights.

My 303 did come with a big anchor light at the mast top, it even works too.