Getting Wires Thru CD30 Mast

[Chris Schnell]

Any tips on getting ST60 Wind and Anchor Light wires down thru the mast WITHOUT stepping it? The person doing the work for me says there are splices or something in the way and we must step it....which will be much additional expense and time. Thanks in advance for your input.

Chris Schnell
s/v MADNESS III #235
Southport, NC



swabbie@compaq.net

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

Chris,

The wires are secured to what could best be described as small sail slides in tracks molded into the inside of the mast. These keep the wires from slapping the inside of the mast and keeping you awake at night. If needed, you can buy more of these little slides from Spartan. You will need to unstep the mast to do the work.

Can you wait 'till you haul in the fall, even though you have those fancy new instruments?

Dave

[Patrick Turner]

There are a couple of ways to do this.....both a hassle. I'm assuming you have an exit hole at the bottom of your mast for the electrical wire to exit and then re-enter the coach roof?
1)If your current electircal is not tied into the sail track thing in the mast that D.Stump mentioned, you could disconect the electrical leading up to a light or antenna at the top of the mast, attatch a tracer line to it, climb up to the top of the mast and pull it all out. Attatch the new wire/cable to the tracer and push/pull it all back down the mast.
2)Mark a length of tracer line the length of you mast. Attatch a small but heavy weight to it (make sure it's small enough to get out the exit hole at the base of you mast), climb up to the top of the mast, drill a hole and feed the line down until you reach your prediscribed mark. Climb back down and with a flashlight and bent coat hanger or the like, fish out that tracer line and secure it.My tracer line ran down through the mast and then back down the outside so I could "jimmey it" from the bottom. Once you've fished it out, run back up to the top, attatch your cable and then feed it down as much as possible and then pull it on down with the tracer. It's a hassle, but I did this on my previous boat...unassisted. Takes a few trips up and down...but heh, sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I'm sure there are other...and most likely better...ways to get this done.

Pat



patrick.t@home.com

[Larry DeMers]

Since you are installing new instruments and light, you will need to use new wiring also, which means that you don't have to pull the old wiring from the sailtrack wire way inside the mast..but rather send it down by itself, with maybe wire ties with unclipped ends applied every foot or so.
To do this, get a fish tape and attach a short (1 ft.) string pennant to it, and feed the tape and pennant from the bottom wire exit hole up wards to the top, where you will snag the fish tapes pennant with a coat hanger, pulling it out of the access hole for the wind instruments or light. Attach the new wire to this pennant, and carefully wrap electrical tape around the end to form a smooth transition from wire to string. Feed it down the mast while someone retrieves the tape from below. This requires a minimum of fuss.
Of course, there is no reason why this could not be done from the top down too, except that the fish tape reel is heavy, and it will be banging around at the top of the mast..could get to be a problem.


Cheers!

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

Any tips on getting ST60 Wind and Anchor Light wires down thru the mast WITHOUT stepping it? The person doing the work for me says there are splices or something in the way and we must step it....which will be much additional expense and time. Thanks in advance for your input.

Chris Schnell
s/v MADNESS III #235
Southport, NC

demers@sgi.com

[Chris Schnell]

Dave...Fortunately, I sail year round here, so the next time I haul will be in the Spring, and then I don't step the mast, just clean and paint the bottom, other needed maintenance, and then back in the water.

Chris Schnell
s/v MADNESS III #235
Southport, NC



swabbie@compaq.net

[matt cawthorne]

Dave,
While the mast was down this winter I went to internal halyards and new wiring. With the internal halyards you must attach the wire to the slides or put them in a conduit. I did not order enough slides from Rig Rite. I went to the marina's store to look for something similar. As it turns out my marina had the same slides because what Rig Rite sells are sail slides made by some other company.

I was worried that the slides sold by Rig Rite were too small for the track and would rattle. As it turns out there has been absolutely no slap of the halyards or rattle of the slugs inside the mast.


Matt



mcawthor@bellatlantic.net

[Dennis Truett]

Chris, I did mine this year (with the mast horizontal) If yours is like mine, there is only one internal track. To do it right you should make up the harness on the ground next to the mast. Some wires go to the top (coax + dc lights etc) and some only go to the spreaders. (Mast light) Use cable ties to attach the "Sail Slugs" to the harness every 3 feet. Then, with a pull line fed through the mast, feed the harness into the mast sliding each sail slug into the track. Youll have to fish for the wires through the access hole at the spreaders.

I'm glad I did it right. my problem was that the coax was installed lose and would slap against the inside of the mast. Could not sleep at night. Good luck.

Dennis Truett
CD26D

Any tips on getting ST60 Wind and Anchor Light wires down thru the mast WITHOUT stepping it? The person doing the work for me says there are splices or something in the way and we must step it....which will be much additional expense and time. Thanks in advance for your input.

Chris Schnell
s/v MADNESS III #235
Southport, NC

[John R.]

Any tips on getting ST60 Wind and Anchor Light wires down thru the mast WITHOUT stepping it? The person doing the work for me says there are splices or something in the way and we must step it....which will be much additional expense and time. Thanks in advance for your input.

Chris Schnell
s/v MADNESS III #235
Southport, NC

Like you up in the Carolinas most boats down here in Florida are in the water year round and rarely are masts unstepped unless there is a significant problem or for painting/refinishing.

I don't advocate a tied harness for mast wiring. From many years in the marine business I can tell you first hand that is a major headache when a problem arises in one circuit and that circuit is deemed necessary to be replaced. It is not possible if all circuits are tied into a single harness without yanking the entire harness (time consuming and costly). Larry mentioned a standard practice of using untrimmed wire ties every couple of feet to reduce wire slap inside the mast. These do work but are stiff enough on their edge to cause some trouble in feeding future wiring. Some people use foam strips also and other materials too. Foam strips can be a problem if furure wires are run and the end of the wire is not covered as it will tend to snag the foam strips.

A fish tape is generally the preferred method of running wires by most folks but you can almost as easily run the circuits without one if they are duplex or similar conductors. They have enough body and stiffness to transcend the length of the mast without much of a problem, especially if they are 14 gauge or larger. Someone mentioned the use of a coat hanger as a hook to retreive the wire end at the exit and that works well depending if some time was taken to design and shape the hook well. Think of a narrow horseshoe shape with a flared end on one side. I always use a few wraps of 1/2" duct tape on the ends of the wire which made it easier to snag and retain a hold on the wire end with a hook. I'm discussing feeding the wire from the masthead down to the maststep. Going the other way you would need a fishtape, especially one with a clasp on the end (like fishing line snaps). Using those you just strip a little length of the wire to be fed and solder its end onto itself making a small loop, then just hook it onto the fishtape clasp (snap). That makes a positive attachment and you won't have to pamper the feed, you can jerk it around and push etc., without loosing your wire end.

My CD30 mast has 6 circuits within it plus a 1/2" radar cable. Some are duplex cable and some triplex and coax. All were run without a fishtape and were fed from aloft down to the deck. They were of no great trouble. None are in a harness and only one has foam ties about every three feet. No, they don't bang around. I think some folks have a problem with wire banging because they pull the wiring two tight and then it lays fairly close to the mast wall without touching it, the thinking being that perhaps if it's tight without slack it won't bang. I've always allowed a lot of slack so the wiring will actually rest against the wall at various points down the mast due to the wires curl memory. No noise, no extra fuss. All in all you should have no problems feeding wires from aloft downward. Try to feed at the entry point with the wires curl aiming the end of the wire opposite the position where your exit hole will be (the curl of the wire will force the wire to the opposite side where your hole is, usually!). When the wire reaches the bottom shine a small flashlight beam into the hole and have the person aloft wiggle the wire so that it passes before the hole, then just hook it and have the person aloft pull up slowly until the tape on the end reaches the hook, then pull the hook and end to the hole and grab the end with a pair of narrow long nose locking clamps (like the surgical ones), remove the hook and pull the wire out of the hole. This technique works well and is fast and easy, just be certain that the amount of tape you place on the wire end is small enough to easily exit the hole.

[Chris Schnell]

Thanks to everyone....once Allison gets totally out of here we're going back up the mast and get this job done right. This board's a lifesaver for the inexperienced like me!

Chris Schnell
s/v MADNESS III CD30 #235
Southport, NC

swabbie@compaq.net