Mast ground wire

[Tony Thomas]

After sitting in rain water for no telling how long, my mast light ground wire that attaches to the keel bolt still works but, it is in shreds. I am restoring the boat and doing the rewiring now so I would like to fix this now. Does any one know where this wire goes? the wire leads into the hole that goes into the bottom of the boat. Tha hole is located just below the v- berth bulkhead. I see where the wire comes out on the deck but I still can't figure out where this wire is located.

 

[Ernie Rogers]

Mast grounding

Per the manual, "The mast is grounded to the forward keel bolt with an 8 gauge black wire."On my 23, the wire disappears right under the bulkhead that supports the mast, so it could be concealed in the mast post which "trims off" the side of the bulkhead opening next to the table.I've not had any grounding or lightning problems so far (phew!!)so I've not investigated that wire much.Ernie RogersS/V Whimsy II, H23

 

[Kevin]

Tony:Did the same thing this summer: rewired the boat. Your grounding wire is likely longer than needed to reach the bolt. Cut off the corroded part. Strip back the wire about 2 inches. Form the shiny exposed copper into an open loop and "tin" by coating with solder. Re-attach to keel bolt with two washers and another nut above existing bolt after re-torquing the existing bolt to specs.

 

[Jon Bastien]

Look up...

On my H23, the grounding wire ran from the forward keel bolt, under the bulkhead, up the mast compression post, and then to the inside of the mast mounting plate. You could see the upper end if you looked up when you were sitting on the porta-head.--Jon BastienH25 'Adagio'