Wires in mast clanking???

[John Sluder]

My 31ft Seafarer is a wonderful boat, I enjoy sailing up and down the ICW, relaxing around the islands, the nice sounds of nature, but this is spoiled by the clanking of the wires in the mast.

How can I silence the wires without a de-masting?

 

[DannyS]

I personally wouldn't do this, but I've heard of some people filling the mast from the top with styrofoam packing peanuts. You'd have to have some sort of access to pour them in however. I've never seen it done but I know my neighbor's mast is full of these things.

 

[philwsailz]

IF you go the peanut route, make sure they are FOAM and not the new water-soluble breakfast cereal variety. You can get packing peanuts these days that are puffed corn... One rain storm and you will have a gooey mess running out of the mast... Bring out a little sugar and a spoon....

 

[Ed Schenck]

Can we assume that you have tightened all the halyards? A loose halyard will hit the wires and make the same clanking noises. I mention that because I have two spares in my mast. Naturally your main and jib halyards will be snug. Then depending on how the mast wiring exits at the bottom maybe you can tighten it. Not many options without taking the mast down.

 

[higgs]

With the mast down, pull out the wires and use wire ties every couple of feet along the length of the wires. Use a wire tie with reasonable long tails and don't trim them off. Once the wires are pulled back inside the mast, those tails will keep the wires off the mast's insides.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

I have a small diameter pvc conduit dedicated for wiring and never hear a sound.

 

[Ed Schenck]

But the question was how to fix without "de-masting".

 

[JerryA]

What about spray foam insulation? Drill 3/16" hole part way up the mast to insert nozzle. Insert a rivet when done? Allow to harden before moving the the halyards. Just an idea.

JerryA

 

[woodster]

What about spray foam insulation? Drill 3/16" hole part way up the mast to insert nozzle. Insert a rivet when done? Allow to harden before moving the the halyards. Just an idea.

JerryA

if you are talking about the stuff they call "Great Stuff " you do not want to do that ....it is like the pleague and will run you halyards and its not simple to remove it is likened to gorilla glue urithane based product...if you have ever used gorilla glue and got it on your hands you know it takes about a week or better to ware the staine off your hands and that stuff will fill your mast up to the point nothing will work ........

regards

woody

 

[LloydB]

try running a piece of twine up thru the mast with kitchen scrub pads tied on about every 4 feet (bow tie style) It may not entirely stop noise but should dampen it.

 

[dscribner]

John,

Earplugs is your only option. We had this problem on our Lance 25 but she's trtailerable so I step the mast every time we sail. I ended up rewiring the mast but strung foam marshmallows every foot or so. We know hear nothing. I Was going to use real marshmallow Peeps (TM) since they would out last the foam but they were out of season and I was afraid PITA would stage something on my front lawn.

 

[Ducati]

No packing peanuts, or expanding foam...you are just asking for trouble. Sorry, the right way to fix it would be to take down the mast and re-feed the wires into conduit pipe. The entire job would take 5 hours.

Good luck

 

[John Sluder]

Well I can do a "proper" fix next winter when I pull her out of the water. The zip ties or the plastic scrubby pad trick might work I have to see where I have access to the inside of the mast, the lower section did not have any thing larger than .250" hole for wires.

 

[Deadline]

Foam

I second the spray foam insulation.
It won't take much, so experiment.
Just a little shot at a time.
Or you could just lose your mind...

 

[DannyS]

I think the spray foam is a bad idea. Even though I brought it up, I also think the packing peanut idea is a bad one as well. The reason being that what if you need to run a new halyard or anchor light wire inside the mast without sewing the ends of the halyard together or taping the wires together to pull them through the mast? If the halyard parts inside the mast, You will have to climb the mast and try to push a rope through the peanuts or through that foam... same with the wire. It's not going to happen. As I said, my neighbor has the peanuts in his mast and is trying to figure out how to add a spinnaker halyard. The only way I can see doing it is to run it externally with a cheek block at the top of the mast, or pull the mast and have the peanuts drop out.
I only offered it up as a temporary suggestion until you can pull the mast and do it correctly. At least with the peanuts, you can blow them out with an air compressor. The spray foam is going to be permanent until it degrades which could be a long time.

 

[JerryA]

I was thinking just 6_7 inches of the foam stuff. Not the whole mast. probably a good idea to clarify.