The Next Stage

[Eddie Offermann]

So I've been working on refinishing the exterior wood. It's looking good - I have another weekend worth of work and a few mornings during the week of laying up lacquer, then a day of touching up the paint and that will be finished. Since I work full time, I have to squeeze it in where I can so it could be a few weeks before that gets finished.

One thing that I can do in the evenings is work on the lighting. I've been installing RGB LED strips in recesses and behind coves. You can see an example of this lighting here:

I'll be sure to post pictures of it on the boat when it's complete. It's easy to install and is natively 12v so it fits right in. They're remote-controlled - so I have several remotes in different locations that can be used to control any of the segments. The controller boxes remember their previous state, so if you set the color to warm white and on, then turn power off, they'll be on when you restore power and set to warm white: so it's easy to set them up to be turned on/off traditionally. There's even a waterproof version intended for underwater or marine installations - so I'm using them to provide light in the cockpit by placing a strip behind a cove along the overhang from the doghouse. I always have issues at night seeing the compass in the dark, and these will fix that while providing attractive, hidden light in the cockpit that can be set simply to provide illumination, or even set to a deep red to help preserve night vision.

The light it provides on SoNice is subtle and from most viewpoints appears sourceless - by placing it behind overhangs in the cabinets and behind coving, it illuminates everything without ever seeing a bulb. Since I'm trying to retain the classic boat feel while updating the onboard tech, these really fit the bill for me. Power draw is also extremely low since they're LED.