I have a teak cup holder attached to the pedestal in front of the compass. I attached a cigarette plug to the teak under the bottom and wired it to the instrument pod. I usually keep my hand held gps or radio plugged in. Not beautiful but very functional and out of the way.

My 1987 C36 came with the remains of a plug in on the wall of the cockpit just outside of the cotrol panel. Most electric was already there with the glow plug circuit.

Might be a LOT easier to put it somewhere else with better access to not only wiring from the electrical panel, but ADEQUATE wire sizing. Those lighter plugs are simply not made for any heavier load. Your intended use of a light load is fine, but make sure the wire size to the plug is adequate. Somewhere else is usually on the coaming, maybe even inside a cockpit coaming cubby.

I installed one that I purchased from West Marine. The location is basically behind the tach and on the port side of the Captains display ( I think that is called)- where the gauges are. At first the cover would not close properly - but after some adjustment it all worked OK. I use it to power my portable Garmin GPS. I had to change the GPS lighter plug since it would slip out of the cigarette lighter. The one I bought from West Marine includes 2 rubber rings to keep water out and also keeps the plug from slipping out.

Right, if the old glow plug circuit, prior to a solenoid, has a #10 wire and can handle glow plugs, the electronics load is nothin'...Thought that was a given

[QUOTE=plaineolde;22263]

Stu, if your reply was to me, I have two #14 duplex lines run from the panel to the instrument pod. ... Either way, the wiring is more than sufficient.[/QUOTE]

Gary, no not necessarily to you, and Gary M answered it, too. My point was for others reading this thread in the future and should be cautioned. some folks I have read have plugged in 200,000 candlepower searchlights and wondered why there was [COLOR="Sienna"][SIZE="5"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"][B][I]smoke[/I][/B][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR] coming out of the lighter plug! :eek: Really...sad...

And call me a heretic, but I won't usae anything smaller than a #12 wire on my boat. The only wires smaller than that are the OEM ones for the lights, which, of course, are way too small if you turn more than one light one (haven't gone to LEDs all the way, can't justify the cost for the way we use our boat, since our trawler lamp works just fine in the saloon, and those few lights we do use regularly are already LEDs - V berth for reading and galley). I did an energy budget on the difference, and don't see how a 2 ah savings per day would justify the cost for doing them all. At home, we don't leave lights on in rooms we don't occupy...:)

Good point though, I was thinking of 'reaonable" electronics, but in the heat of battle, a searchlight could be plugged in and now you have more problems!