Now We're Cooking

I'm right in the middle of a 2 week vacation that I had planned a while back to really get to know the boat.  After the boat launched I had gone out on 3 or 4 day sails/sea trials to make sure everything was working as expected, but hadn't done any overnights or long sails and stayed close to home.  There are a few things that I'll have to rework a bit and I'll post about those issues later on in the year, but none of the issues are sailing or safety related so it's game on.

The weather has been incredible except for a front that rolled through at the end of the first weekend of vacation.  Steph and I had a couple of good sails and did some much needed scrubbing of the decks (the boat had not been washed since launch).  The last night we were there, we went to dinner and the wind picked up to a steady 30kts with gusts in the 40s.  Mattapoisett Harbor is open to the Southeast and when the wind blows from that direction the anchorage gets pretty rough.  Add in a downpour and the return to the boat was pretty exciting.  Overnight, the harbor got so rough that we ended up sleeping in the main cabin because the v-berth was a bucking bronco.  

The next morning we left and the whole family returned a few days later to sail down to Vineyard Haven on Martha's vineyard for a few days.  It was HOT and humid but fortunately the breeze moderated things a bit.  We set out a bit later than planned and the wind had picked up significantly, so before we dropped the mooring I decided to put a reef in the main.  I believe the reefing system on the boat was intended to be a single line system, but the way I currently have it configured requires that I pull the reef tack onto a reefing hook on the forward end of the boom and then the line for the reefing clew runs aft to the cockpit. I may revisit this in the future, but it works well and requires minimal fuss.  In my experience, a true single line reefing system introduces a lot of friction and puts a lot of strain on the mast track.  

Anyway, the reef was a good idea because by the time we got out on the bay the wind was a steady 20kts with gusts to 25 and to get to Vineyard Haven, we needed to transit Woods Hole and we would be hard on the wind for the first leg.  I also partially rolled up the genoa to keep the boat from being overpowered.  Buzzards Bay is known for its 'Smoky Souwesters' and it lived up to to name with big winds and 3-6 foot steep chop. The boat galloped along at 7 kts toward Woods Hole and I was really surprised at how civilized it was compared to my Alberg 35.  The Alberg was a vintage CCA design with a narrow beam, low freeboard, and long overhangs that would result in wet and wild with the rail going under almost constantly in those conditions.  Weather helm was also a constant struggle because of the large main (as compared to the fore sail).

The Niagara is a different animal altogether.  The wide beam and high freeboard coupled with a more proportionate main to foresail ratio made for a downright civilized ride and we had a very steady heel angle of about 10-15 degrees.  The Alberg would have been 30-35 degrees all day long.  My dad always used to say: "If the drinks spill, it's kids stuff" and while I've always enjoyed the kids stuff, as I get older I can really appreciate a more comfortable ride.  

We made it to Woods Hole in about and hour and had the tide with us so going through was a pleasant experience.  The Woods Hole passage is a notorious stretch of water that separates the Cape Cod mainland with the Elizabeth Islands (named in 1602 after Queen Elizabeth I by explorer Bartholomew Gosnold).  The tides can run up to 5 kts and do not follow the charted channel resulting in boats being dragged over rocky bars if their not careful and even though the channel is well marked, the markers can be dragged under water or pulled off station when the tide is really running.  Add in a few car and high speed ferries to the mix and it makes for a memorable passage. Fortunately, when we transited, the current was only about 2.5 kts and all went smoothly.

Once through Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Vineyard Haven is only about 3 miles off the coast and we made it into the harbor and an awaiting mooring in short order.  We had reserved an inner harbor mooring and even though the boats are very close together, it was an easy pickup because it's so protected.  

Once we were settled and cleaned up all the lines in the cockpit we just hung out, swam a bit and watched all the happenings in the harbor.  It's very busy and there are often ferries, windjammers, and ridiculous superyachts coming and going.  Also of note is the number of classic boats in the harbor, many of which were built at the famed Gannon and Benjamin yard right on the beach in the harbor.  

We had a few ice cold tequila drinks and made black bean burgers for dinner.  I'll take a moment here to extol the virtues of boat refrigeration.  Of all the upgrades to the boat, I think this is my favorite.  I have never owned a boat with refrigeration and was initially on the fence about installing it but I'm so glad I did (Refrigeration Install).  The days of melted ice blocks and soggy food floating around in a big soggy cooler stew are over and I'm happy to say goodbye.  

We eventually took the launch into town so we could part with a bunch of money to get some ice cream and walk around town before heading back to the boat for a few rounds of Bogle before bed.  My only regret is leaving the dinghy behind because the launch service is $5 per person each way, so with the 4 of us we spent $40 just to get to the overpriced ice cream. Oh well...

The next morning we woke up, took a swim and headed back home around 9AM.  The wind was a bit lighter than the day before and we had an absolutely perfect sail back through Woods Hole and across Buzzards Bay to Mattapoisett.  Now I know the Niagara is not a racer, but we passed a few boats on the same course as us so I was pretty pleased.  We made it back into the harbor and picked up our mooring just before noon.  My son and daughter had to get back for work the following day so we had a quick lunch and said our goodbyes.  All in all it was a pretty perfect weekend and I'm really starting to get to know the boat and I feeling more comfortable on her every day.

Velorum Floats!

I've been slacking on the writeups in the past month or so especially considering this has been the most exciting month of the whole project, but it's been so busy and stressful I just haven't had much time to sit down and write.  I'll get into a few more details but in a nutshell, Velorum was hauled, launched, and sailed.

Rolling back to mid June, I was in full on stress mode trying to get the hauler to commit to a specific date (24th) and getting the boat ready for the road.  This entailed removed the pulpit on the bow and all of the lifelines I had just built up so the boat would be under the height limit (I think 12') when on the road.  I knew this needed to be done before I built the lifelines, but it was annoying to have to take things apart that I spent so much time putting together.  Such is life.

I finally got word on the 22nd that the truck would be there to pick the boat up on the 24th, so I called a few friends who could skip out of work for a few hours to help me load the mast onto the truck (the hauling company explicitly said that they do not load masts themselves and I would need help).  The driver called me the night before and said he would be there around 9AM, but he didn't actually show up until 10:30 or so because of traffic.  I felt bad because my co-workers took time out of their day to help, but ended up sitting around for quite a while.  

The whole process of loading a boat onto a truck seems very unnatural to me and it was super stressful to watch but after about an hour or so, the boat was on the trailer with the mast on the side rack and ready for the trip down to Mattapoisett MA.  I watched the boat drive off and decided that I would not follow the boat down to watch it get unloaded and just trusted that it would all get done. Sometimes it's best not to see how the sausage is made.

The next day I headed down to Mattapoisett Boatyard to spend a few days getting her ready and found the boat had arrived in one piece and happily with no damage. I found a spare ladder, climbed aboard and got to work.  The first thing I did was reinstall the pulpit and lifelines and get the navigation red/green light wired on the pulpit (I had run the wire earlier this spring, but never installed it knowing that I would just have to take it apart for the trip).  

Next up was rigging the mast. I installed the windvane, windex, and lightning arrestor on the masthead and then replaced the rope chasers with all the actual halyards before turning to the standing rigging. This was one of the biggest sources of stress for me because the new rigging I built the previous summer (here) was up until this point theoretical.  I didn't really know if everything would fit even though I checked and re-checked my measurements about a hundred times when I put it all together.  

I attached the six shrouds (2 lowers and 1 upper per side) and then re-assembled the profurl roller furler and attached the forestay.  At this point I bundled up all the shrouds and loosely tied them off to the mast near the partner in preparation for stepping the mast.  I stopped in at the yard office and said I thought I was ready to step the mast and 15 minutes later the riggers and a boom truck showed up.  It's worth noting here that the crew at Mattapoisett Boatyard are so accommodating and patient.  When I contracted with them earlier in the year, they said they could help as much or as little as I wanted when getting the boat ready to go.  I chose to do most of the work myself except for the actual step and when I said I was ready, they swarmed into action.  

Earlier I said that it seemed unnatural to see a boat loaded onto a trailer; well, stepping a mast takes it to another level.  Seeing a 250lb mast with wires everywhere suspended above your boat with nothing more than a strap is not for the faint of heart.  Fortunately, all went well other than a minor adjustment of one of the shrouds that should have gone forward of the spreaders instead of behind them.  They spotted my mistake before they even got it off the ground.  Once ready, they picked it up with the boom truck, dropped it into place and started attaching all the rigging.  Amazingly, my measurements were spot on and everything attached perfectly.  

The only piece of rigging that wasn't finished was the backstay because I couldn't get an accurate measurement from the old rigging so I put the stalok fitting on the top so I could attach it to the mast and then I cut it about 2 feet long so once the mast was stepped I could cut it to final length.  With the mast in place and all the shrouds and forestay attached the crew helped me stretch the backstay aft and we estimated the length needed.  They gave me a few minutes to cut it and assemble the bottom stalok fitting before we locked it onto the backstay chainplate.  They did a quick tune of the rig and everything checked out great (they commented on how well it had gone and that the mast went into column perfectly).  What a relief.  After that drama was over I was able to install the boom and get the rest of the running rigging and dodger setup.

The last thing I needed to do before launch was get the engine started. I had run the engine back in Canterbury after finishing up the installation, but I thought it would be a good idea to double check in case something had rattled loose during transport.  It fired right up with no issues so I gave the yard the go ahead to launch the boat.  

Unfortunately, the tide was too low to launch that day and I was out of time and had to get back to work so I had to wait until the following week and take a day off work to get the boat launched.  Steph and I  showed up the following Tuesday (6/30) and let them know I was ready to go.  10 minutes later they had the boat in the travel lift slings and the boat was hanging over the water (this was clearly not their first rodeo).  

They lowered the boat in and had me step aboard to check all the seacocks and make sure there were no leaks.  While still in the slings I started up the engine and let it run for a few minutes and then they fully dropped the slings and sent me off into the harbor to pick up a mooring.  Somehow all of this was drama free and everything seemed about right.  

Steph and I spent a few hours out on the boat cleaning things up and checking systems before heading back on the launch.  The first sail would have to wait until the weekend, but this was the milestone I had been working towards for 2.5 years.  Most of the work was over (it's never really over) and now it was time to get to know the boat.

 

Lifelines

Now that I'm in the home stretch to launch, I've been scrambling to get the last projects done before the boat is hauled to Mattapoisett on June 24th.  Most of the items on my still considerably long list are small things like tightening fittings and a few more tests, but the lifeline project was fairly a substantial one mainly because I was switching the old coated steel wire with dyneema instead.  

The main reason I ended up doing dyneema was that several hundred feet of it came with the boat and there are no swage shops around the area without some significant travel.  In the end the dyneema might have ended up being slightly cheaper than just replacing the steel wire, but it was a good opportunity to learn a new skill: splicing.

In the weeks leading up to actually doing the project I spent boring meetings and lunch hours learning how to do brummel lock splices with the dyneema line that came with the boat.  All told I needed ~150 feet to redo everything and the boat came with 225 feet so I had lots of extra to practice on.  It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I eventually got it and it became quite fun to see how fast I could do it.  

While I was learning the splices, I was also studying the various methods for securing and tensioning the completed dyneema to the stanchions, pulpit, and pushpit. I eventually settled on using parts from C.S. Johnson; they make a wide range of termination fittings for splices.  They aren't cheap, but look nice once completed and should hold up over time.  Next I came up with a cocktail napkin with my execution plan and ordered the parts.  

Once everything arrived I got to work. The nice thing about rope lifelines is that you really don't need a tape measure, you start by splicing one end of the line to a fitting (I started up front) and then run the line aft to the gate and then tension it with some tape before cutting (with enough extra to bury the splice).  Repeat for the other 3 lifelines (pulpit to the gate) and then splice in the gate fittings to each.  The only downside is that once the gate splice is completed, then you can't remove them from the stanchions but I don't think that's any different than a comparable wire setup.

Once all 4 pulpit to gate lifelines were completed and setup, I did the sections from aft at the pushpit to the gate opening.  Same process, but a bit shorter line to work with.  Once everything was installed, In theory, brummel lock splices shouldn't ever come undone, but I went back to each splice and lock stitched them in place just to be sure and then spent some time whipping all the ends with waxed twine.  I'm not sure the whipping is really needed, but once you get the hang of it it's really easy and it looks nice when done.  

Unfortunately, all of the lifelines have to come down when we haul the boat because with the pulpit and lifelines installed, the boat is too high for transport.  I'm letting them stretch a bit for the next few days, but will take them off and roll them up in the stanchions for transport early next week.  

 

Lithium Upgrade

I alluded to this project in an earlier post back in March, but it's finally completed and fully tested and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  When I first bought the boat I thought I would keep things simple and stick with lead acid for the house and starter batteries with a magnetic latch combiner for charging (came with boat), but the price of reliable Lithium Phosphate Iron (LiFePO4) kept going down and after a lot of research I made the decision to upgrade back in February.  

The battery bank was one of the last pieces of the puzzle for getting the engine going and testing all the systems I installed and it wasn't until 2 weeks ago that everything finally came together and got it all installed.  The heart of the system is a WattCycle 300aH LiFePO4 battery that would be responsible for powering all the house loads while I kept a sealed lead acid battery to power the engine.  As a general rule, you don't want Lithium batteries managing the engine because if the battery management system (BMS) has a fault, it can disconnect the battery from the engine and fry the diodes in the alternator.  So the Lithium and lead acid batteries are effectively isolated from each other.

The problem with this is that if the batteries are isolated, how do you get the alternator (or other charging source like solar or shore power) to charge the lithium bank?  The answer is a DC-DC charger.  I chose a Victron Orion 50 amp DC-DC charger that connects the 2 banks together and detects when the lead acid is being charged.  When it does, it starts charging the Lithium bank with a proper charging profile and manages the state of charge.  This way if the Lithium bank's BMS decides to shut the battery down, the lead acid battery will continue to take a charge from whatever source is charging and will protect the alternator.

The first step was to figure out how to fit all the components into the battery compartment underneath the quarter berth.  It needed to house both the Lithium and lead acid batteries plus the bus bars and fusing to support all the incoming connections and the DC-DC charger. I also added a Victron Smart Shunt that has a bluetooth protocol and accompanying phone app so you can see the state of the system from my phone.  It shows all the current loads, state of both batteries and the DC-DC charger reports if and how much charge is incoming.

After some careful measurements I built the entire system in my office with all the fuses and bus bars mounted to a piece of plywood to make sure it worked.  This all happened back in early March and at that point it was still too cold to actually install anything so the project was put on hold until warmer temps showed up in NH.  

When the temps finally warmed up I was able to move the whole contraption over to the boat.  I mounted the plywood board with all the bus bars and switches to wood cleats in the compartment and started hooking up incoming wires.  It's sad that even though I labeled everything really well, I didn't quite trust myself and retraced all the wires back to their respective sources to make sure the labels were correct.  This consumed way more time than was probably necessary, but I wanted to make sure I got it right and didn't fry something because I was being stupid.  I also added additional ventilation to the compartment with some passive holes and a temperature controlled fan that turns on at 104 degrees F.

After I got everything installed, I re-labeled everything with proper tags and made a laminated diagram that sits in the compartment for future me, because I will forget everything and when it comes time to troubleshoot something I will be confused.  I hope this will help me.  After the installation, I was able to test every single circuit in the boat including the shore power and last week, I fired up the engine for the first time since it was reinstalled late last summer and I was able to confirm that the alternator started charging through the DC-DC charger.  

In other news, I contracted with a hauling company and the plan is to pick the boat up on June 24th and deliver it to Mattapoisett Boatyard.  After that I have a day or so in the yard to get the mast stepped and then the boat will be launched.  So the clock is ticking.  I have a huge backlog of projects that I've been working on and hope to get those posted in the next few days.  

Hot Water (I think)

This project has been weighing on my mind ever since I decided to locate the IsoTemp 20l water heater underneath the starboard settee.  I really liked the location because everything is easily accessible and should actually be fun to service (type A fun), but running the coolant hoses from the engine was a bit of a head scratcher because despite of the easy access, getting the hoses into the compartment and ultimately to the tank to heat the water with excess engine heat is not easy.

I've spent the better part of 2 years since I installed the tank (Water System - Check (almost)) thinking about it, but ultimately holding off because I wasn't sure. Well, I don't have much time left and if I want hot water this summer when I launch I had to figure it out.  

The first problem I needed to overcome was the fact that the coolant ports on the engine (in and out) are located in such a way that they would need to basically turn 90 degrees.  After a ton of searching online I found prebent (90degree turn) 7/8" silicone coolant hoses at an automotive performance shop near me.  From here I added 2 7/8" couplers and found a 20 foot roll of 7/8" silicone coolant hose on amazon.com.

I fitted the prebent hoses onto the engine coolant ports sending them down toward the transmission, then added the couplers and after some searching found a decent route to the hot water tank. I ran the hoses down alongside the transmission and under the floorboards over to the nav station.

At this point I drilled 2 -1.25" holes with my holesaw in the bulkhead between the starboard settee and the nav station.  The bulkhead is 1/2" marine plywood with a layer of glass mat on both sides and was pretty sharp, so I needed to come up with a gland/grommet for each hole that would allow the hoses to pass through without chafe.  

I fired up the CAD system and designed a pass through grommet with rounded edges so the hoses wouldn't rub on the sharp fiberglass.  I printed them up with the 3d printer in safety orange (mainly because that was what was loaded into the machine) and printed them up.  Once finished I took them over to the boat, fitted them and then glued them in with 4200 sealant.  

I left them overnight so the sealant would cure and the next day came back and snaked the hoses underneath the nav station and through the holes into the water heater compartment.  The coolant hose ports on the water heater are 1/2" male npt, so I had to come up with a solution to make the connection to the 7/8" ID hose.  I finally came up with the following: 1/2" female npt to 3/4" female npt followed by a 3/4" male npt to 7/8" hose barb (I really hate pipe connections, it's never simple).  

Anyway, I taped and installed the fittings on the water tank side and finally connected the silicon hoses with hose clamps.  The last thing to do was fill up the hoses with coolant so there is no air in the lines to create an airlock. I did this by taking the hoses off the couplers just after the 90 degree elbows and pouring coolant in on one side until it came up to the top of the other hose and then reconnecting everything.  All told, the full circuit from the engine to the water tank is about 14' and should be within the limits of the coolant pump.  Hopefully this will work, but I won't know until I run the engine for a bit once it's in the water to see if the water heats up.  Crossing my fingers, but I can cross this job off my list for now.

Tides Marine Sail Track

Putting a new main sail track on the mast wasn't really in the original plan but because I used heavy duty triplex wiring for the mast, the original wire channel covers (see green circle in schematic) were going to be a really tight fit. Additionally, the existing track was a bit banged up and knowing that the sail is hoisted from the cockpit, there would be a lot of friction in the system that could make it hard to raise or lower the sail.  My previous boat (Alberg 35) had a very old external sail track and a wire halyard and the effort involved in getting that sail up and down was exhausting. Not something I want anymore and a new sail track would give me less friction and more space for the wiring since it would effectively replace the existing cover.

I spent a fair amount of time researching, and most of the low friction systems on the market are just insanely expensive and way out of my price range. A friend of mine told me to take a look at Tides Marine and after reading many, many reviews and speaking with one of their technicians for over an hour, I decided to pull the trigger.

In a nutshell, the Tides Marine track is a extruded HDPE plastic track that slides into your existing track (or over depending on track type).  The first step in the process is to request a fit kit from Tides Marine.  It's free and is a clever way to get exact measurements for your particular mast with a series of plastic discs to capture the proper width and depth dimensions so the track can be created.   The first set of discs are for the slot width and uses the letters A-R to set the width (mine was N). The second set of discs are for the slot lip thickness and uses 1-8 to determine the thickness (mine was 8).  The only other thing to measure is the track length in feet and the distance from the distance from the gooseneck to the top of the mast gate (6.65").  I gave myself a little extra wiggle room and ordered 40' of track even though the luff on this boat says 38'.  I put the order in online and less that a week later a big hexagonal box showed up at the house with the track and nice stainless steel sail slugs (I counted the number of slugs on the mainsail including the headboard).  

The next step was to get the gooseneck off the mast because you need the space to slide the track into place.  This proved to be quite a challenge because the gooseneck was connected to the mast with stainless steel phillips head machine screws (maybe #14) and it probably had never been removed since the boat was first launched in 1986. Stainless steel and aluminum don't mix very well and they were locked together spectacularly.  I tried a big screwdriver with zero luck then hit it with PB Blaster (also no luck). I spent 3 days giving it regular squirts of PB Blaster and tapping the fittings to introduce some vibrational stress and still they wouldn't budge. Next, I hit them with a torch and more PB Blaster and finally got 2 of the 8 screws to back out, but the other 6 were stuck. I considered using my impact driver that I had good luck freeing up engine bolts, but my concern was because phillips head screws can easily be stripped out and once the are, the job becomes a total nightmare.  

What I did find was a manual impact driver online that you hit with a hammer and it rotates a quarter turn.  I ordered it and with the help of more PB Blaster and the propane torch I was able to free up all the screws without destroying anything and once I got the gooseneck off, I was free to proceed with the rest of the job.

I waited for a reasonably warm day (65degrees F) so that the plastic track was a bit more pliable and my wife and I got to work.  She held the new track like a hula-hoop and I fed it into the old track gate.  Initially the track was hanging up on gate, but I took a metal file and smoothed out the edges and after that it was just a matter of sliding it up to the top of the mast and fixing the bottom (new gate) section onto the old groove with a t-nut (or something like a t-nut).   

I'm excited to see how smooth this track is (I've heard good things), but the few tests I did with the new sail slugs were incredibly smooth and 'slippery'.

Mast Wiring Complete

It's finally starting to warm up a bit, although not as much as I'd like but sufficient to get back to work on projects.  One of the final projects to tackle before the launch this summer is the mast and although the bones of it are sound, a lot of work needs to be done before it's ready to stand up.  All told there are 5 mast projects that need to be completed (or are completed).

1. Masthead removal and rebuild - completed: here
2. Wiring - this post
3. Mast track - Tides marine sail track
4. Rigging tang installation
5. A good scrubbing

When I bought the boat, the wiring was in sad shape and need 100% replacement. I left a lot of it in place after I dismantled the masthead so I could use it as a guide when it came time to replace it all.  Also, the original fixtures were incandescent which drew significantly more power and consequently, heavy gauge wire.  The good news is that the new fixtures I'm installing are all LED and can use 16 gauge wire instead of 12 gauge in the original, giving me more room in the mast tunnel for robust wiring (it's tight, see schematic with tunnel circled in green).  In total there are 4 fixtures that need wiring in the mast: the VHF antenna, the anemometer for wind speed, a combination tricolor/anchor light at the top of the mast and a combination steaming/foredeck light located mid mast. 

Since the VHF and anemometer cable have already been determined (Raymarine for the anemometer and radio antena physics for the VHF), I needed to find some robust 16-18 gauge wiring to send power to the tricolor/anchor and steaming/foredeck lights.  I could have gone with 18 gauge to keep things smaller, but I only want to do this once and I want it to last so I purchased a spool of 16 gauge triplex bilge wiring that should satisfy my needs. The reason for triplex wiring is that each of the fixtures has 2 positive leads and 1 common ground so that each function on the fixtures can be controlled independently.  The final reason for choosing the triplex bilge wiring is that is it beefy and should stand up to many years of abuse hidden in the mast.

Installing the steaming/foredeck light was pretty straightforward and the mounting holes were a perfect fit with the original fixture (including the genoa guard).  The tricolor/anchor was slightly more complicated and I'm glad I pulled and rebuilt the masthead unit last year and hadn't reinstalled it, because I needed to find a slightly different mounting location for the tricolor/anchor (the mast never had a tricolor on top before, just an anchor light).

I found a good location on the masthead where it was out of the way of other equipment on top and allowed me to use the same hole to pass the wires through so that they didn't interfere with the halyard sheaves.  after I tapped new screw holes and mounted the light, I decided to test it before reinstalling the whole assembly and while I had tested it when I pulled it from the box and everything worked fine, once it was mounted, only the tricolor worked unless I tilted the whole masthead at an angle. I decided I must have caused a short or loose connection when I mounted it, so I took it off and pulled the whole unit apart and re-torqued all the connections, but it was still intermittently turning on and off.  Next I put the tricolor light in the anchor socket and the anchor light in the tricolor socket and the anchor light was still acting funny.  I thought, "Ah, it must be a bad LED bulb" and found the serial number online and was just about to order another one when I noticed in the specs that this bulb had a light sensing diode on it, so it only turns on "Dusk to Dawn".  Duh... 

Sure enough, when I located the diode and put my finger on it, the light turned on and back off again when I took my finger off.  As it turns out, when I initially tested the fixture out of the box it was nighttime. When I tested it after I mounted the whole fixture and thought it was related to the angle it was tilted, it was actually because I was tilting it away from a window causing it to darken enough to turn the light on...  Moral of the story: "I am an idiot", but it was nice to find a new feature on the light that I hadn't expected.  The fixture as sold does not come with the "Dusk to Dawn" diode, so the previous owner must have replaced it and put it back in the box.  

With that revelation finally understood, I remounted the fixture on the masthead and took both fixtures over to the boat to get them installed.  I ran 2 lengths of triplex bilge wire from the base of the mast to each fixture and crimped the connections with shrink connectors.  Then I heated up all the connections with my heat gun to shrink the connectors over the wire until I could see the little squirt of glue coming out around the wire.  

The final part of the installation for the tricolor/anchor light was to run the halyard chase lines through the sheaves in the masthead (2 jib, 1 main) and tap the masthead back into place and bolt it on.  To test it all, I brought over a smallish 12v lithium battery and stripped the tricolor bilge wire at the base of the mast and powered up each function. I'm happy to report that after the silliness with the "Dusk to Dawn" diode, everything worked as expected (as long as I cupped my hands around the anchor light because it was still bright out).