LEDs and wood

[ShadowRWolf]

ok, pulled the old car battery out of the boat and added in a real battery joy i no longer have to pray to the gods that the boat wont sink when the powers out and the storms raging.

i knew something was rotten in the battery compartment but it seems there was more than just rotten the entire aft bunk is rotting. seems its made of partial board or something that brakes apart the same way.
so i plan on cutting the entire thing out and rebuilding
so today’s questions will be


will LEDs be a good replacement to conventinal lights
and when i go to rebuild the aft bunk what wood will be best?
this is a old racing boat some something light and durabul
something that can withstand the tropic humidity.


thanks for all the help guys, il post pictures of what im working with some time this week.

[Chief Engineer]

You can get some pretty exotic light weight stuff.

but you are talking $$$$$$$$

or you can build it out of plywood (make templates and save til you hit the lottery and can make it outta fancy exotic stuff.)

[ShadowRWolf]

just ply wood, wouldent it degrade quickly?
no need for templats when you have the originol blue prints :-P

[Boracay]

I have used epoxy saturated pine plywood for the interior of Boracay.
I cut the ply (12mm or 7mm) to size and then coat it with 5:1 generic epoxy thinned 10-20% with epoxy thinner. The edge get special attention.
If I'm being real flash I sand lightly and recoat with epoxy and/or single pot exterior polyurethane varnish. The finish isn't too bad.

I've found the light from LEDs is very directional - just the area directly in front is lit. I've used them but added 12V fluorescents for when better lighting is needed.

[SilentOption]

When you say bunk I am guessing you mean what the mattress is laying on?

If thats the case plywood will last a real long time if you paint it on both sides and the edges to seal out moisture.

Make sure its thick, like 3/4 or so.

[ShadowRWolf]

its the entire aft bunk, if you look at my youtube vids of coral head, the bunk behinde the navable, it extends under the cockpit, all the wood in the sotage is done for, the wood that the bottom bords sit on are roten, more or less the entire things shot, il take extencive pictures this week, i was concidering just geting rid of the bunk entirly and just having more storage and give me axces to the shaft, stuffing box and builge and exzast line

Good marine grade pywood will not rot unless it gets soaking wet, often. The inside of your boat should not be that wet. If it is, fix that problem first.

Most everyboat except high tech racers has large amounts of plywood in the interior, and they don't "degrade quickly".

[SilentOption]

Originally Posted by ShadowRWolf

its the entire aft bunk, if you look at my youtube vids of coral head, the bunk behinde the navable, it extends under the cockpit, all the wood in the sotage is done for, the wood that the bottom bords sit on are roten, more or less the entire things shot, il take extencive pictures this week, i was concidering just geting rid of the bunk entirly and just having more storage and give me axces to the shaft, stuffing box and builge and exzast line

I wouldn't get rid of the bunk. If I was going to rebuild I'd make the parts strong and removable so I could have access and keep the bunk in tact.

Agree with marine grade plywood comment. It will last a good long time even if it is getting wet occasionally.

Also agree if water intrusion is a "normal" condition for you that needs to be addressed.

[ShadowRWolf]

probobly rotted when the watter backed up when the boat was sitting. there is also a leeking drain that i cant fix untill i get in there

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by ShadowRWolf

will LEDs be a good replacement to conventinal lights

This is a big subject.
I have replaced all my down light successfully with LED's and plan to do the same for my reading lights. (I really want to replace the whole fitting and I am still looking for some nice solid well made LED lights)
As others have pointed out commercial LED lights are not fantastic at producing a broad spread of light, but they are improving at a phenomenal rate. A modern high bin bare Cree emitter (This is a modern LED) would make a fantastic boat light with good spread, but if you want one you have to build your own and I have not got the time.
It is a bit frustrating, like walking in to a computer store and the salesman saying "we have a nice range of 386 computers over here and we expect the 486 models in another few months"

[ShadowRWolf]

ahh building them hmmm... somone have a part # for these (modern leds) i may be able to spend some goverment $ on some :-P

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by ShadowRWolf

ahh building them hmmm... somone have a part # for these (modern leds) i may be able to spend some goverment $ on some :-P

Here is a link to the manufacturer

CREE | LEDs for the LED Lighting Revolution

Cree LED's are available in different colors and in different brightnesses. They are rapidly getting better at making these things brighter. The brightness is given by the "bin code". The best readily available at the moment is bin code R2. This is about 7% brighter then the previous best Q5 (for the same power consumption), but to put this in perspective the best available probably 12 months ago would be about 50% as bright (for the same power consumption)
Most commercial boat lights are using multiple 5mm LED's. You would need perhaps a 100 of these (depending on the quality used) to produce the same amount of Lumens as one Cree R2. Although it is difficult to compare brightness as the 5mm LED's produce a much narrower beam of light.
There is deffinatly a market for someone to produce good quality LED boat lights.

[ShadowRWolf]

thanks for all the help, geus im going to start my project this week.
may as well start drawing up my newer plans for it, since im sitting here on duty in the big ship today....


now my question is y keep the bunk? by removing it it opens up a toun of storage, providing very esey axces to the area under the cock pit, and with a lil bit of work the area under the cockpit can be converted frome just a uceless void in to a nother small storage area.

i will never have so meny people with me that would fill the 4 bunks currently + 2 more on the V. by doing this thow i will lose the seet for the nav tabe, but thats a simple fix.

[ShadowRWolf]

added pictures of the v berth with some tape measure measurements

shadowrwolf - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[forsailbyowner]

Keep in mind when contemplating removing the bunk that it probably is a structural element in the design of the boat. Much like removing a load bearing wall in a house you may end up with flex or worse post removal. Ive had good results with leds at a super low cost by using this method.
I take a piece of teak 3/4" square x desired length and run it across a saw on one side to make two grooves to fit wires in. Then i drill 4 evenly spaced holes the same size as the head of the led. Then install 4leds in series using one groove for 12+ side and other groove to return to ground.
They look great dont need resistors and the whole shebang can be made with a scrap of teak and $4 worth of leds. The leds I use are rated at 3.5 max voltage so they wont overheat when charging voltage of 14 volts is present.