wiring running lights and water lights

[gonefishin55]

I have a 16ft 1975 venture mini trihull bass boat. It has a 85hp motor with eletric trim and hydraulic steering and has gauges. I fully redid whole boat. Its very nice. How ever when I did this boat I forgot to wire in running lights and deck lights for nighttime catfishing. However I had a few questions. Do boats recharge their main battery? Is there a charging system? Sorry this is my first restore and first fishing boat (use to have speed boats) so if I run my lights one power to battery and one ground to battery won't it just kill my battery??? Also I rebuilt my carbs and replaced the bilge pump. Sorry if this stuff seems like dumb questions. I'm only curios cause my 85hp two stroke motor has a little distribitor cap. Does this mean I can run my lights off that with a kill switch or somthing? All comments n advice is welcomed.

[Silvertip]

It would certainly help if we knew what engine this has. All you've told us is that is an 85 HP. What make, what year is essential. Being electric start it very likely has a charging system and if it does, it will charge the battery. If you plan to add anything electrical to this boat you really should stop at the library or hit the internet to learn basic DC (direct current) theory. It is not rocket science. But to help, here are a couple of diagrams. The first is a basic lighting circuit. The arrows point the direction of current flow through the system. The second is a diagram showing how to wire navigation lights. Be aware that there are rules about how these lights are to be used. When anchored (boat not moving) only the stern (white) light is to be on. When under way both the bow and stern lights must be on.

[gonefishin55]

Yea its electric start and. Electric choke. So if I'm night fishing n I hook. Me a fish I can't flip on all the lights in order to see to bring in the fish? Cause that's all I wanna use them for. Well n the running lights of coarse.