I would consider the battery powered lights (that run off two D cells)
unless you are going to run a trolling motor and/or a fish finder. Even
fish finders are available to run off D cells. Probably the boat would not
be rated for more than a 10 horse and you don't need (or can't get) an
electric start for a 10 horse motor.
LD

wrote in message
oups.com...
As you can tell from my posts, I'm new at owning a boat and am not
really that handy. So bear with me.
I recently bought a 12ft aluminum Jon Boat. It looks like someone was
trying to turn it into a fishing boat at some point. There are signs of
a fish finder mount on the back.. rod holders.. etc. It also has a nav.
light on the stern (that's the front, right?). The light doesn't work,
but is wired through a pvc pipe that goes to the back of the boat. I
have no idea what the guy was trying to do, but there are a lot of
wires in the pvc pipe and I'm not sure what their intended purpose was.
At some point they come out of the middle of the pvc onto a panel of
some sort, and then some more come out a little farther down. Maybe he
was trying to do a live well or something? Anyway, I want to do away
with all of the unfinished wire work and pvc pipe. But I would like to
keep the light in case I stay out past dusk at some point. What do I
do? Run a couple of wires from the light back to the battery and attach
them to the battery operate? Do I need to protect them from water,
somehow, or is it that simple? I wouldn't mind mounting a switch for
the light to the back of the boat as well. Is it as easy as it seems it
would be? Run a couple of wires back to the switch, and from the switch
to the battery? Anything special I need to be looking for?

Y'know, after mulling it over a bit, I do have a trolling motor and I
just might go ahead and get some use out of it. So I'll have a battery
on board. I'll probably end up with a 3 - 5 horsepower gas motor with
the $300 used budget I'm shopping with. I don't think I'll get too
crazy with gadgets unless I move up to a bigger boat in the future,
though.