Was snuggled up next to my rudder post yesterday installing the remote mic for the new VHF, when I noticed that only one wire was attached to the stern light. The other seemed to have fallen out of it's butt connector (one of many in a daisy chain to the stern light).
For today's trip to the boat, I included some butt connectors and my heavy-duty crimper (but I forgot my wire stripper - had to make do with a razor knife). Found that the wire had not fallen out - rather it had corroded away. I had to cut the wire back 1.5" before I got to something I could splice to. The rest of the conductor was powder.
Guess I'll have to start a campaign of yanking on crimp connectors to check their integrity. Plus, getting rid of undersize wiring. Just because Perko sells the light with #18 leads doesn't mean I have to crimp into a #18 wire. #14 or #16 has a lot more copper and will take longer to corrode away.
Oh yeah, new radio installation went fine. Even got it interfaced with the Lowrance HDS 5m. The only tricky spot was telling the Lowrance what sentences to send and at what baud rate. Once over that hurdle, the new VHF was happy. The old VHF is up on eBay for $5 - see if I get any bidders..