Deck wiring swan necks

Sans Bateau

Sans Bateau

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Who has a stainless steel swan neck at the mast foot for the cabling?

Currently I have several of the rubber deck glands, but they look tatty and with the mast down again there is always the question when restepping, are they sealed properly.

So if you have a swan neck, was the pros and cons?
 
Effective up to a point. We have had water through ours when heavy spray came over the decks in a fast reach but none since I bunged some sponge in. It appeared to be correctly installed, alongside the mast in a 34'er.
 
Stephen

I know what you mean. Each individual cable seems to have a different way through the deck and the swan necks (on other boats) do look neat and tidy... Searching for prices they're not as expensive as I thought. £30+vat.. That's about the same price as two single through deck fittings.
http://www.seascrew.com/browse.cfm?CABLE-GLANDS-FOR-DECK---BULKHEAH&l=0000000668

What I was wondering about though is the rectangular version that appears to be better for standing on (should you so wish) and doesn't catch lines as easily..
Pictures here http://www.elvabro.com/marin3.html

There is a thread that discusses the elvabro merits and finds a UK distributor.
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231524
 
We have one and it’s not water proof, it stops the rain and light spray getting in, but unless the cables are sealed into the tube with something, on our case plasticine, they leak with heavy spray or when you get a “green one” over the deck. You can't use anything more permanent than, say plasticine, because you’ll not get the cables out of the tube undamaged.
We also have a length of cord bridging the gap between the swan neck and the mast to stop the Genoa catching on it when we tack. You need to make sure that the base is well sealed to the deck and that seal isn’t broken by the side loads a Genoa sheet can impose.
 
I made my own swan neck from part of a cycle inner tube which I Jubilee-clipped onto the outer shell of the removeable part of the deck fitting. I then bored out the interior of the fixed half of the deck fitting plus the hole through the deck to a diameter which could take the plugs and wires. The in-built curvature of the inner tube gives you the swan neck whilst its flexibility makes it tend to twist and close up around the cables. It's been in service for a number of years now.
 
Previous boat had a swan neck. I hated it as it was located where the jib sheets kept catching. Also chaffing was a problem where the cables entered.
Obviously no good if you have plugs/sockets on the end of your cables.
 
I had a 35mm swan neck on my previous boat and was pleased with it. The new (to me) boat is a ketch and the cost of two through-decks made me wince.
The solution was to pinch a couple of the dog's stainless steel water bowls. 2" plastic pipes were epoxied in a hole through the deck projecting a couple of inches above deck level. A tufnol ring was fabricated with the centre hole just big enough to slip over the pipe with an outside diameter a tad bigger than the dog bowl rim and sikaflexed in place.
I ground off a section of the bowl rim for the cable to go through when inverted... edges covered in plastic pipe, slit lengthwise.
The purpose of the tufnol was to take screws holding down the bowl to avoid penetrating the deck.
The only problem is that the dog gets confused.
 
Talulah said:
Previous boat had a swan neck. I hated it as it was located where the jib sheets kept catching. Also chaffing was a problem where the cables entered.
Obviously no good if you have plugs/sockets on the end of your cables.
Click to expand...

I made stainless steel swan-necks from standard s/s weldable elbows, a very short offcut of pipe, and a small plate flange.

You won't get any chafe if you stuff some foam into it, and in fact one of the great advantages of swan-necks is that you CAN get plugs/sockets through. They have to be big enough, obviously, and situated where they wont catch sheets etc, but that is true of any deck fitting.
 
Have you thought of a FlatGland? I confess it's one of ours but I would welcome some feedback on the design.

If you pm me, I'll send you one for free for your evaluation.

The idea was born from my frustration with conventional deck glands and plugs which seemed to be prone to leakage, damage and lurking ready to break toes.
 
Graham_Wright said:
Have you thought of a FlatGland? I confess it's one of ours but I would welcome some feedback on the design.

If you pm me, I'll send you one for free for your evaluation.

The idea was born from my frustration with conventional deck glands and plugs which seemed to be prone to leakage, damage and lurking ready to break toes.
Click to expand...

I always thought it was a medical condition.
 
I have two

I have fitted one at the bottom of each mast - Brilliant - I just stuff some sponge up the open end to keep out the draft. Never had a a problem with green water getting in, though don't often get solid water on the coachroof (it is brown around here anyway!)
 
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