Noise in Mast

[Griffinroydonald]

I spent the night on the boat last night and found out I have wiring slapping around inside the mast. I thought it was the rigging but after using cords on ropes and wires the sound was still there. The lake was a little rough last night and the boat rocked quite a bit so you know how well I slept. I need some ideas to quieten this down , I thought about expanding foam but was wanting some other ideas - Thanks

 

[justsomeguy]

8-inch plastic wire ties. I put three every 18 inches, leaving their "tails" 180 degrees apart.

Nice 'n quiet.

 

[Pat]

Our O'Day 272 does this as well and although I seem to be able to sleep thru this when
anchored, it is a pain. I've heard some people put the lines in pvc sleeves, but am not
sure that works. -Maybe others have better ideas. Pat

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

The wire ties work very well

 

[obrock]

Don't do foam!
some spray foam will cook inside your mast an be permanent an/or messy,
sponges seem to work for me,
able to shove them up in side, peaceful once again!
tied a light weight string around them to be able to pull them out when needed.

 

[Griffinroydonald]

I was also told to use foam pipe wrap in several places. I just wanted a shortcut to keep from pulling the wires out of the mast. Thanks everyone.

 

[Doc_holiday]

Wadded up newspaper every 3-4 fee twill work too

 

[rgranger]

I was also told to use foam pipe wrap in several places. I just wanted a shortcut to keep from pulling the wires out of the mast. Thanks everyone.

Your idea is a good one.... yes you would have to pull the line to use the wire ties. I did something similar to foam pipe wrap. I cut strips of styrofoam from those pink foam boards used around foundations. Eight feet by 2 inches I then duct tapped the ends together and shoved them up the mast. I think your foam pipe idea will work just as well... Just tape the ends together with Gorilla tape so you can get it back out when you need to rewire the mast some day.

 

[Griffinroydonald]

I love this forum as people share great ideas.

 

[Griffinroydonald]

I love this forum as people share great ideas.

Pictures from this weekends shake down cruise.I finished the Life lines , Rails and Ladder for the boat this spring.We had weather and I also found a few small top side leaks I need to deal with.

 

[shanester]

Packing peanuts

Something we did was to put in styrofoam packing peanuts. With the mast horizontal remove the masthead cap (and the bottom fitting if there is one), cover the top opening with window screen, and adapt/duct tape a powerful shop-vac's 2 1/2" hose tightly to it. Turn on the shop-vac and feed the packing peanuts from the other end (make sure they are not water soluble) until full to your liking. As it fills up the suction goes down so the last few feet goes really slow for me so if I did it again I would elevate the bottom of the mast for gravity to help me. My mast was originally open on the bottom so I made a plastic fitting that fit inside and caulked it in to keep in the peanuts.

 

[bakes]

Split foam pipe insulation.

The split foam pipe insulation does work but I had to pull the end caps off of the mast and then the foam can be placed over the wires and pushed halfway(spreader interference Hunter 26) into the mast. Quiet with no internal halyard problems.

 

[Griffinroydonald]

Re: Split foam pipe insulation.

I pulled the mast today and installed pipe wrap in the mast. I held this in place with wire ties and tape between sections. There will be no way in the world this mast will ever make another noise. I had a few sections of wrap left so I cut in strips and drove it into the mast. I can't wait till next weekend to hear the sounds of silence ! I ran new wire and cable while I had everything apart. This took all day but it will be worth it to get a good nights sleep on the boat. Thank you to all who answered with ideas as I was stumped . The pipe insulation was dirt cheap at $1.18 per six foot section.

 

[justsomeguy]

Quiet is good.

Then, I gotta turn off my brain.

 

[Doc_holiday]

I think today is the day to stuff the mast. It's currently raised in the driveway. When I lower it, the stuffing shall begin. I think the dollar store has noodles for, we'll a buck.

 

[Griffinroydonald]

The Dollar store noodles were a larger diameter and had no split in the side. I found it easier to use the smaller dia tube with a larger inside dia. I have two coax cables and one power cable inside the tube. I stretched all these together and taped together about every two feet.