Dropping wire down mast

[Seattle Scott]

Anything with a smaller diameter than a bike chain that makes a good weight to get a wire fed down inside the mast? Trying to put the smallest hole in the mast above the spreaders( instaling spreader lights) and is there anything better than a bent coat hanger to fish it out at the bottom? A magnet? I think I will be "fishing" blind unless I put a 1" hole at the bottom.

 

[caguy]

You already have the chain fed through?

if that is the case I ike the idea of the magnet. Nice creative thinking.. If not try an electicians fish tape fed from the bottom. Seems much easier than pushing a chain (hmm sounds liike a good proverb).
We threaded a tiny burgee halyard block on a spreader, using two fishing poles Saturday. Thanks to Timo42's dead eye we didn't have to drop the mast.
Frank

 

[LANCE ON CLOUD NINE]

I bet you could use some 1/8 plastic tubing.

The kind they use with compression fittings for old type auto gauges. It would be flexible enough to insert into the mast and stiff enough to keep heading south as you worked it in. Just a thought.

 

[sailaway78]

Magnet

I have successfully used a magnet, and it works pretty good. I used a small piece of 1/4" all thread rod I had laying around, and taped it to a string. Magnet on the other end to pull it out. Another interesting idea, that I read about some time ago on this site, is to use a string and a piece of cellophane or a cotton ball. drop it in the hole, and put a shop vac on the other end. At least in theory, this should work like a champ, but have never tried it. I think it all depends on how much stuff is in the mast.

 

[RAD]

Electrician's fishing snake

with small sash chain taped very tightly to it and then send the chain first and have a small piece of snake at the bottom and try to get the sash chain/snake close to the hole opening or try sending a telscoping type magnet to retreive the sash chain.
These are tricks of the trade and I have a 1" diameter hole at the base of my mast for getting access to the snake when I need to.

 

[Tim R.]

Wire slap

If you are leaving the wire loose in the mast, it will slap when at anchor. Also, can you drill the hole where the spreader meets the mast in order to hide the hole? Sounds like a project that would be better done when the mast is unstepped.

 

[Ross]

The smallest steel chain that I know about is

used on fireplace screens. It will drop through a 1/4 inch hole. My technique is to tie braided nylon line to the chain and drop it through the hole and lower it until it loses weight and then pull it back a bit. Finding it at the bottom is the hard part and a rare earth super magnet helps. You should have a helper either to do the fishing or to dangle the chain. If you get it in the first 15 minutes you will be very lucky.

 

[Doug_Meyer]

Sash Chain on chalk Line

I've used an approximatley 2 foot long piece of sash chain attached to a long length of chalk line. The chain goes in over a sheave quite easily, and can be captured with a small ferrite magnet at the exit point of the mast.

The chalk line is strong enough to use to pull a halyard up and follow the chalk line out through the exit. Lash the halyrd end with the chalk line and wrap a piece of rigging tape around it.

 

[Seattle Scott]

Thanks folks

I will try the recommended chain(s) hung from string as a messenger line. I now realize I have a halyard exit plate about 5 feet off the deck. I thing I will drop to the exit plate, then pull wire to there and then start the messenger line process from there to get to the bottom of the keel stepped mast. Migh add zip ties to the lower 10 feet of the new wire run, but above that I won't be able to do. There are already loose wires in the mast that clang at anchor.

 

[sailaway78]

If you use

If you use the halyard exit as a stop/start point, make sure that you don't get the messenger line with a wrap around the halyard. Would be easy to do, and to undoe you would have to start all over.

 

[hutch5151]

Odometer Cable

Try using an odometer cable. Easy to fish over the sheave and you can pick it up with a magnet at the bottem of the mast. Also works great to fish wire thru bow pulpits with mutiple bends.

 

[Seattle Scott]

Thanks folks. With a sash chain on the end of some string as a mesenger, I got the wire from the speaders down to a halyard exiit plate. Just need to go another 8 feet or so to come out below the cabin sole.