Re-wiring the mast
- Thread starter jcakers
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It will probably be a LOT easier in the long run if you do. It is a good time to replace all of the sheaves when you are pulling new wire.
New wiring harness/conduit
I strongly advise you to make sure the wiring is not just hanging loose inside the mast for the halyards will surely eat it up in there. I made a new wiring harness for Diana and just today fabricated a PVC-pipe conduit assembly for it. But the mast is currently on horses (awaiting Awlgrip) so this is easy. Tomorrow I will wrap it in pipe insulation, to avoid rattles and vibrations, and pull it up into the spar. I had this idea once of pop-riveting it to the inside of the extrusion but it was too much work to hold against the inside and drill holes all up and down the spar. So now it will just stand inside the mast step and be fastened at the spreader-light hole and the VHF-antenna hole. The original one was in a piece of clear PVC sink-drain hose. It became moldy and lost of all of its clear-plastic qualities long ago.
Be sure to provide drip/arc loops for any instrument cables coming down from the masthead (on Diana the anemometer leads and VHF antenna make this loop). The wires should dip about 6" below where they exit the spar and then go back up to the hole. This is to encourage lightning to arc the shorter distance to the maststep rather than to not find your radio or shortwave; and even so it's no guarantee of anything. The very scary thing is when these wires exit down in the bilge; boats have been lost when the lightning arced to the keel bolts and blew the lead off the boat. That's a long shot but certainly is theoretically possible. For a keel-stepped spar the arc loop should be up by the deck and might be fitted with a plain piece of wire wrapped around the cable and exiting the spar to something on the deck. In the event of a strike you'll lose the cable but not the radio or the keel.
Or at least re-grease them!
I strongly advise you to make sure the wiring is not just hanging loose inside the mast for the halyards will surely eat it up in there. I made a new wiring harness for Diana and just today fabricated a PVC-pipe conduit assembly for it. But the mast is currently on horses (awaiting Awlgrip) so this is easy. Tomorrow I will wrap it in pipe insulation, to avoid rattles and vibrations, and pull it up into the spar. I had this idea once of pop-riveting it to the inside of the extrusion but it was too much work to hold against the inside and drill holes all up and down the spar. So now it will just stand inside the mast step and be fastened at the spreader-light hole and the VHF-antenna hole. The original one was in a piece of clear PVC sink-drain hose. It became moldy and lost of all of its clear-plastic qualities long ago.
Be sure to provide drip/arc loops for any instrument cables coming down from the masthead (on Diana the anemometer leads and VHF antenna make this loop). The wires should dip about 6" below where they exit the spar and then go back up to the hole. This is to encourage lightning to arc the shorter distance to the maststep rather than to not find your radio or shortwave; and even so it's no guarantee of anything. The very scary thing is when these wires exit down in the bilge; boats have been lost when the lightning arced to the keel bolts and blew the lead off the boat. That's a long shot but certainly is theoretically possible. For a keel-stepped spar the arc loop should be up by the deck and might be fitted with a plain piece of wire wrapped around the cable and exiting the spar to something on the deck. In the event of a strike you'll lose the cable but not the radio or the keel.
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