Wiring for Tricolor Light

I have IP370 Hull 078.
I want to add a tricolor on the mast head but I don't have 12V on the spare wire at the base of the mast.

There is a position labeled "spare" on the mast lights bus bar at the base of the mast with a green wire going up the mast. There is a red wire on that "spare" position that leads back to the panel with the other red wires on that bus bar for the other lights. There is a breaker on the panel labeled spare with wire no. 15 attached. Wire 15 is shown in this photo on the spare bus bar behind the 12V breaker panel but the wire coming from the bus bar at the mast is not attached to that position and is no where to be found. I thought maybe it was accidentally attached to another position on this bus bar or another bus bar so I turned on all the breakers and I still don't have 12 volts at the spare position on the bus bar at the base of the mast.

Any idea where this wire is ? How to find it ?

Thanks.

No, but I have to look when I get home the brand and model, but just added a tri-color that uses the existing two wires for the anchor light. They hook into a controller to change the various light configurations of the tri-color with the existing two wires. Very simple to install and works great without fishing another wire down the mast. The other option is to pull the existing anchor light pair down and pull through what you need and some string for the future.

On our boat, 420 built in 2001, I replaced the anchor light with a tri-anchor LED light made by Orcha Green. The wire for the original light had a four conductor wire that I used for the new light. The other end of this wire was connected to a breaker at the DC panel and had to be removed from there and connected to the control switch for the new light. I then had to run a new wire from the switch to the breaker.

It sounds like on your boat they ran spare wire for you in advance. You'll probably find it bundled inside the mast. It wouldn't be connected to power for safety reasons and you'd have to trace it out to make the connections. The wiring diagram in your owners manual should be helpful here.

When installing the light on my boat I found that Island Packet had installed a 60' braided cord in the mast for pulling wire. It was bundled just inside the top plate of the mast. I replaced this with a 120' chord so I always have something to pull on from each end of the mast. There should be two conduits inside the mast, one going to the top and the other halfway up. Pulling wire through the mast is not difficult. IP had installed chord like this in other places around the boat too. Very convenient.

Tom Ward
IP420-35
La Vida Dulce

The one we had installed was the Signal Mate LED 2-wire with the photodiode which will turn the anchor light off at dawn, or on automatically at dusk, if you choose. Installation took less than two hours total and just added the other switch off panel to select between anchor or tri-color when the anchor light is one. Maybe about $100 more than 3 wire, but worth every penny for the time saved.

I found the wire, it was buried in the bundle behind the breaker panel. I guess for security reasons they leave it disconnected. So the green spare wire going up the mast now has power and we are good to go to install the new LED anchor / tricolor light. Thanks.