Does anyone have any experience installing a whisker pole / track on a furling system mast? Worried about tearing up the mainsail on my Hunter 356. Any tips are greatly appreciated.
I don't have in mast furling. But I installed the track by drilling and tappingfor short flat end machine screws. I also have a selected section there from wiring h410.
See if you can find a mast diagram showing what it looks like. You've got wiring in there somewhere.
See if you can find a mast diagram showing what it looks like. You've got wiring in there somewhere.
I had a 2009 H36, which is probably the same mast as your 356. I didn't install a full track, but I did install a ring on the front of the mast for a whisker pole, which will probably largely apply to a track. In doing so I did a LOT of research on what is in there as I had a roller furling main (sounds like you do too) and didn't want to mess anything up with that or in-mast running rigging and wiring. I came away convinced that the rolling furling is compartmented off to the rear of the mast, and the front of the Selden mast has a channel which houses the running rigging and wiring. I looked at the thickness of the mast at the inspection panels, and taped my drill bit so I knew when I was getting close to drilling thru the wall. Its aluminum, so you can go fairly slowly. With that level of caution I never felt as if I would get tangled up in any running rigging or wiring while drilling the holes.
I did think about whether to use screws or rivets, and how to minimize dissimilar metal corrosion. Monel rivets came with the ring, so I bought a beefy rivet gun and ended up riveting the ring to the mast. I figured that was smoother on the inside than screws sticking into the mast channel. Those rivets took a lot of force, but worked just fine. The ring came with a plastic spacer so the steel ring is not physically touching the aluminum mast. I liberally applied Tefgel to the holes I drilled, and the backside of the Monel rivets before installing them so wherever they touched aluminum was protected that way.
The diagram below is probably representative of your Selden mast (its how mine was set up). To be sure, you can get the serial number off the base of the mast and look it up on their site and then go to the exact manual for your mast. But I bet its the same.
