Mast wiring/radios

[harryjak]

Another Yamaha 25 question, what are people doing about radios. Masthead is the best location, but how do you get the wiring into the boat? I have the mast down and I am going to pull the mast step on the boat and see if it is possible to get wires into the boat that way.

I am also going to put in an Anchor light vice the steaming light. It can double as a steaming light on less than 30', you just have to cover up the stern light.

 

[Forrest15112]

You can use something like this

or, you could install a bulk head barrel connector like this through the deck which allows a cable to be screwed on each end. This would be ideal on a trailerable boat where the mast gets stepped regularly. If you go this route, don't believe anyone who tells you certain RF connectors are weatherproof. Seal all exposed connectors.

OK, after enough edits, have the links right...I think.

 

[harryjak]

Thanks for the through deck suggestion, I hope I can tap into the regular wiring channel, much cleaner look

Do any of the 25 owners have a radio and if so how are you doing it?

HJ

 

[Ameseys]

My VHF antenna is on a small mount on the transom, just outside of the stern rail. It is a 3 foot stainless whip antenna. It works fine, but certainly doesn't have the range of a masthead mount. It looks fine there and isn't too obvious.

My yard smashed and ruined the masthead wiring that come out for the internal harness. I could not re-route any cable there - it seemed to be sealed or fiberglassed closed. I wound up drilling a hole near the base of the mast and then running a 4-conductor cable up to the masthead and a separate anchor light. I used a thru-deck fitting and fixed the cable to the forward side of the mast support inside the cabin.

Not as clean as the original installation, but acceptable. I tried and tried to use the old existing cable run, but gave up after several hours.

 

[Syntonos]

Here's how I did it. Real pain in th A#&!!

My boat already had VHF/tricolor at mast head. The amas supporting the mast (big beam in boat) is hollow - to run wires through there requires removing cabinetry (cleanest). As the VHF cable was already exiting as shown in the picks I just ran my xrta leads that way.

I wanted to have a deck light controlled seperate from my steaming light. That required a lot of mast climbing and a lot of wire fishing, i.e. a lot of work.
Placed a watertight box on deck with connector blocks to ease trouble shooting.

 

[harryjak]

Thanks a lot for the replies that was the info I was after.

I have to have a mast head antenna not so much to talk to people but to insure max ability to hear the weather broadcasts.

Syntonos, how did you route and secure the wires in the mast?

 

[Syntonos]

wire routing/pulling

As the VHF and tricolor were already ran I didn't have to deal with the mast head.
I used some 1/8 line wrap/spliced with electrical tape,(think of a chinese finger-trap toy you had as a kid) to contract to the old steaming light wiring and pull through the new 3/1 (blue wiring in pic). Go slow it's easy to lose the line.

All my work was done with the mast up.
IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT WRAP THE HALYARDS WITH THE NEW WIRING----- CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOUR HALYARDS RUN FREE REGULARLY!

The gray box is mounted over the amas support with a hole drilled in the bottom directly into the beam cavity ( the mast step is actually on the aft side of the amas).
That enclosure on deck is the best thing I did and worth the work. Future troubleshooting is a breeze as you now have mast wiring and mast wiring leading from the fuse panel seperated.

It's just a whole lot of fishing wires through holes with dentist picks ect in tight quarters.
Be Patient.