CABLES BANGING INSIDE OF MAST

[Dennis Truett]

I just returned from my first week long voyage on my CD26D, The boat sailed just fine except for one nagging thing. It kept me awake at night! At first I thought the halyards were banging against the mast, so I secured them. The banging continued. I then realized that it was the VHF coax, and the 12 volt electrical cables banging against the inside of the mast. Is this normal installation? Does anyone know of a fix?



truettdc@frontiernet.net

[Larry Austin]

Hi Dennis,
last summer, first full summer with the boat, i had the same problem.
very noticble at anchor and sailing downwind..very annoying!! I pulled the wires at the base of the mast and the noise would stop so i knew they were loose inside.

the fix...pull the mast. inside my mast is a sail track fitted with
about 15 nylon sail slugs. the wires inside the mast are wire tied to the slugs about 3 or 4 feet apart. well, when i pulled the mast there were about 10 broken wire ties on the mast step. the harness was not
attached to most of the slugs anymore and was banging around in side the mast.i redid the entire harness and put 2 wire ties per slug and pulled them tight. you dont want the slugs after a while to work there way south. and to hold the weight of the harness when the mast is back up i attached a couple of cable clamps to the to the harnesss at the top of the mast.

a good winter project..hope this helps

also, for a temp fix, you might pull the harness( to take the slack out) and wrap alot of tape around the wires to keep them fron going back inside. only a temp fix..the wire seems to lossen and start banging again.

Larry
CD 30MKII
LAYLA



laustin@us.ibm.com

[Richard Woolson]

The installation sounds sloppy. The fix I have heard of is to drill holes periodically up the mast and to shoot as much foam insulation as possible into each one. The insulation I am referring to is the type used to insulate around home electrical outlets. It comes in an aerosol can with a "straw," the way WD 40 is packaged.



Woolson@usa.net

[Jerry Hammernik]

I hate to say somebody else's way is wrong, but, I would never put expanding foam in a mast. I once spent an entire Sat. helping a friend remove foam from his mast so we could rewire. If you don't have the slugs to go in the track you can get good results from fastening foam or sponge pieces to a piece of line every few feet. You then pull the line through the mast and you have foam pieces wedging the wires in place every few feet. If you use the spray foam you will curse yourself if you ever have to rewire, and if you sell the boat some day the new owner will curse you! Just my two cents worth.
Jerry Hammernik
Lion's Paw CD28 #341

The installation sounds sloppy. The fix I have heard of is to drill holes periodically up the mast and to shoot as much foam insulation as possible into each one. The insulation I am referring to is the type used to insulate around home electrical outlets. It comes in an aerosol can with a "straw," the way WD 40 is packaged.

dauntles@execpc.com

[Russ Campbell]

What I did on my boat is : when the mast was down to take all the wires and put them inside pipe insulation. You can buy 1/2" pipe insulation at the hardware store in 4 to 6 foot sections. I just wrapped them around the wires and taped them together. This way you can leave exits for wires part way up such as at the spreaders. There is no banging on my mast. Without taking the mast down there is no really good way I can think of to fix the problem. Good Luck

Russ

I just returned from my first week long voyage on my CD26D, The boat sailed just fine except for one nagging thing. It kept me awake at night! At first I thought the halyards were banging against the mast, so I secured them. The banging continued. I then realized that it was the VHF coax, and the 12 volt electrical cables banging against the inside of the mast. Is this normal installation? Does anyone know of a fix?

camroll@together.net

[bill willis]

I just returned from my first week long voyage on my CD26D, The boat sailed just fine except for one nagging thing. It kept me awake at night! At first I thought the halyards were banging against the mast, so I secured them. The banging continued. I then realized that it was the VHF coax, and the 12 volt electrical cables banging against the inside of the mast. Is this normal installation? Does anyone know of a fix?

Dennis,
Don Casey in his book, "This Old Boat" has what seems like a good approach. He runs pcv pipe inside the mast ( size determined by amount of cable or wiring), attached the pvc pipe to inside of mast wall with pop rivets and then runs electrical wires, cables, etc. inside the pvc pipe, thus eliminating the banging of loose wires and cables. It's explained very clearly in the book.
regards, bill



wawillis@toad.net

[Ed Haley]

I can verify Russ's method since I also filled the interion of the mast with foam pipe insulation. The 4' lengths were taped together as they were inserted into the mast so they can be removed later if rewiring has to be done.



eghaley@twcny.rr.com

[John M]

I just returned from my first week long voyage on my CD26D, The boat sailed just fine except for one nagging thing. It kept me awake at night! At first I thought the halyards were banging against the mast, so I secured them. The banging continued. I then realized that it was the VHF coax, and the 12 volt electrical cables banging against the inside of the mast. Is this normal installation? Does anyone know of a fix?

Dennis,
Don Casey in his book, "This Old Boat" has what seems like a good approach. He runs pcv pipe inside the mast ( size determined by amount of cable or wiring), attached the pvc pipe to inside of mast wall with pop rivets and then runs electrical wires, cables, etc. inside the pvc pipe, thus eliminating the banging of loose wires and cables. It's explained very clearly in the book.
regards, bill

We used the Don Casey method when we re-wired the mast on our CD28 INTREPID. It sure works great! I wish I knew THEN what I know now. I would have used the cable ties in the internal track to hold the PVC inside the mast. We may consider changing, in the future, from rivits to cable ties.

Just a couple of thoughts:
- Don't forget to leave a light line in your wire channel to pull in any future wires/cables/etc.
- We wired a tiny white light just UNDER the windvane. At night it is easy to SEE the wind.

Good Luck!
John and Nancy
CD28 Intrepid



johnmartin55@hotmail.com

[Dave Olson]

I read somewhere that a cluster of four cable ties tied around the bundle creating a "star" effect with the tails will keep the wires in the center of the mast. I would place them every foot or two or three...

I need to do this myself this fall or next spring... The mast comes down every year in Minnesota!... I'll post my result...

I just returned from my first week long voyage on my CD26D, The boat sailed just fine except for one nagging thing. It kept me awake at night! At first I thought the halyards were banging against the mast, so I secured them. The banging continued. I then realized that it was the VHF coax, and the 12 volt electrical cables banging against the inside of the mast. Is this normal installation? Does anyone know of a fix?

olsonacre@compuserve.com

[sloopjohnl]

dave,
use five cable ties and use the real heavy-duty, stiff ones for the best results. the thin, spindly ones collapse too easily.

I read somewhere that a cluster of four cable ties tied around the bundle creating a "star" effect with the tails will keep the wires in the center of the mast. I would place them every foot or two or three...

I need to do this myself this fall or next spring... The mast comes down every year in Minnesota!... I'll post my result...

I just returned from my first week long voyage on my CD26D, The boat sailed just fine except for one nagging thing. It kept me awake at night! At first I thought the halyards were banging against the mast, so I secured them. The banging continued. I then realized that it was the VHF coax, and the 12 volt electrical cables banging against the inside of the mast. Is this normal installation? Does anyone know of a fix?

[Bob Luby]

I went the PVC Pipe route and it worked fine.

One thing though, The wiring in my mast ( 83 CD25D ) was secured by
styrofoam blocks that had been pushed inside the mast. This may interfere with the simplest cable tie solutions offered here.

The pvc pipe worked great at pushing the blocks out.




Rluby@aol.com

[Bob Loewenstein]

I also put pipe insulation around the wiring in our 27 as Russ did. Worked like a charm and took only a few minutes (well about 20).

Bob



rfl@yerkes.uchicago.edu

[Kurt]

I had excellent results using the 6' lengths of 1/2" foam insulation sold at home depot...the type intended to keep basement water pipes from sweating in the summer...just push it into the mast over the wires and tape the sections togeather as you go...but because some of the wires stop at the spreader light I had to push it into the mast from both the bottom and also from the top after removing the mast head fitting to gain access...works like a charm



kjlgpw@aol.com

[Bill Bloxham]

What method did you use to reattach the masthead fitting?



mmmmmmbill@aol.com

[Catherine Monaghan]

There is a cable conduit running the full length of the mast. The conduit accepts sail slugs. All of the wires can be bundled and attached to sail slugs, about 16 inches apart, using cable ties. The cables are then run up the mast with the sail lugs in the conduit. Once in place, they cannot move around and your mast will be quiet. It works, they're installed that way on our CD32 which has 2 conduits in its mast.

catherine_monaghan@merck.com
CD32 <a href="http://www.hometown.aol.com/bcomet/real ... ization</a>, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

I just returned from my first week long voyage on my CD26D, The boat sailed just fine except for one nagging thing. It kept me awake at night! At first I thought the halyards were banging against the mast, so I secured them. The banging continued. I then realized that it was the VHF coax, and the 12 volt electrical cables banging against the inside of the mast. Is this normal installation? Does anyone know of a fix?

catherine_monaghan@merck.com