We put ours in the floor of the v bearth there is a small hatch access we had the same issues with metal magnetic… it works well there and has for several years. We have a raymaine
This is James Meyer on the robert lynn ; we used to be in branford ct at Dutch warf boat yard they do top notch work but are expensive, so we left but everything they did for us was great reworn byetc
I dont know what type of reading lights you have but I have changed mine out, in the vee on either side it has a base a stem and a swivel light with a bell shade to LED .
it saved alot of battery use and are great for reading before you go to sleep