Multipin connectors on deck

K

Kristal

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When my masts go back up, there may well be a few more electrical items going on them and I'd like to keep holes in the deck to a minimum. Has anybody come across a good, sturdy multipin connector I could use for numerous 12v applications?

My plan would be to have a watertight distribution box inside the mast to bring all the wires (barring RF of course) into one multicore, and via said connector into the boat's electrical system.

I've done a few pages of Google without much success.

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Not a bad idea, considering that I am planning to bring mains aboard the boat by having a connector in the forecabin and bringing the shorepower lead down through the anchor hawsepipe. There are already about three deck connectors, though, if I was doing the thing properly I'd have to remove them, and plug the holes, first.

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I would re-consider bringing the shore power connector down through the hawse pipe, as not a great idea to have this system in the very salt laden air that is normal there, and also not a great idea to have a hole through into the inside of the boat from there even if protected by a gland.
 
Should be okay, the shore power cable would run another few feet, resting in guides along the inner hull, to the bulkhead between forecabin and saloon where the connector to the boat's system would be. The hawsepipe emerges directly into the forecabin, allowing the chain to feed into the chain locker which is beneath the V-berth. The other side of the connector will be hooked into a permanently-installed cable leading back to the battery charger behind the chart table.

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Yes, although it is a fiddle - five minutes and a strict order. I have a VHF aerial connector, a 5 din plug for the Ray Marine wind transducer, and two standard three core electrical cables with ring terminals. I can't remember my internal ID at the moment but I could measure it tomorrow if you want. Send an e-mail address in a PM if you want to see a photo - mind you its just a bit meatier than the HR one. Inside I have made a box with sliding lid which is fitted onto the cabin roof which is entirely dry. This keeps the connections neat and out of sight. In there the aerial and Din plug meet their other halves and I have a Merlin terminal block for the electrickery wires. I drop my mast each year and found repeated failures with several types of deck plugs. I think the failures come from the annul undoing since the ones on the stern deck for the GPS, navtex and Stern Light have survived. But then they never get touched.
 
My deck connectors are failing - the VHF is decidedly dodgy, although the unit itself isn't much better than my 6W handheld so that hasn't been too much of an inconvenience, and the tricolour is very troublesome. Smaller connectors may the way forward.

Thanks for the link, Jon, will investigate that too.

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dri Plugs do a multi cable version
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Dri Plug Website
I use the single cable versions and find then really good.
 
In the past all my VHF problems have been with the aerial - first with a connector at the top of the mast - ye gods why would anybody want a connector at the top of the mast? and then with the deck plug. Now with the current (sorry) arrangement, I have bags of power and seem to hear from far further abroad (not just when the atmospherics are having a go).

I agree with davidwf that the dri plugs are the best but my experience is that annual separation doesn't do their water tightness any good. The ones on the stern deck that are left alone are fine.
 
I have used one of these.

http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/ProductDe...5b-28ddee3f3593


the rubber is soft so cables can be pushed through and all the connections are then made inside the cabin.

I have fitted two strips of terminal connectors that are connected together with 1.5 mm dia single core cable. When disconnected one terminal strip goes through the deck hole and stored with the mast. When reconnecting the strips are just put together and there is no chance of getting the connections wrong.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Not a bad idea, considering that I am planning to bring mains aboard the boat by having a connector in the forecabin and bringing the shorepower lead down through the anchor hawsepipe.
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[/ QUOTE ] Not a good idea, There is a good risk that one day you will forget to undo the shore power and attempt to sailaway with it still connected.
Far better to bring it aboard at cockpit and thread it through the wheel (or around tiller) to prevent this happening.
 
Funny you should mention that...

I almost tried to tow Levington Marina into the Orwell last Monday night - my shore power lead goes through the skylight (under the upturned rigid dinghy) and thence ashore. Thought this was idiot proof, as you can't miss a big fat cable sticking through the middle of the saloon. Wrong. There is always a bigger idiot - me - who does not go through the saloon in getting under way in the dark. Spotted at last moment...
 
I would do everything possible to avoid connectors through the deck for same reasons as others have said. In my own view the gooseneck that has been suggested is fine or, if possible, we take the cables through the deck though a straight upstanding tube inside the mast step so mast shelters it and the tube stops water dribbling down inside the mast running through into the boat (assuming is deck stepped mast which may not be the case with Crystal of course) to connector box inside the boat.

Regarding shore power - lots of peeps have sailed off towing the marina, what I always do is loop the shore power cable around one of the used mooring line cleats on top of the mooring line so when casting off is obvious the cable is there (we also put the shore power connection right by the helmsman's leg). Has saved us from embarrassment so far (fingers crossed).

John
 
We got so fed up with corroding/failing deck connectors that we took down a ceiling panel and put the connectors behind it.
It does mean we have to take the panel down to disconect everything when we drop the mast but we don't do that often.
 
I have done the same as Mirelle once, but routing the mains cable via the cockpit is rarely practical as mooring stern-first on a finger pontoon is not something I often do - I am not comfortable with her counter being to close to the lateral pontoon. I am designing my own switch panels, which will show when mains is both connected and switched on internally, so hopefully I can ingrain a habit of checking the "status" panel before getting underway.

Crystal's mast is keel-stepped, and the hole in which it sits is rather tight, which probably means I couldn't get away with rerouting the cables to emerge from the mast beneath deck level. If there was some small flush-fitting panel I could fit which would allow the cables to be pushed inside in order for the mast to be restracted, without affecting its strength, then perhaps I could have all my connectors just above forecabin sole level?
 
We are nomally bows on too but use a shore cable long enough to run from the shore connector to the bow, and then from there along the deck to the stern.

John
 
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