Navigation lights and topmast shrouds

[cliffordpope]

I'm in the process of rigging my small gaff cutter, but have had a sudden thought about the fitting of the port and starboard navigation light screens to the shrouds. How do I avoid a clash with the topmast shrouds?
The 2 main shrouds each side obviously cant in from the chains to the mast, but the topmast shroud rises from the same point but only inclines slightly on its way to the cross-trees. This takes the wire exactly through the middle of where I would like the screen to go.
I've looked at pictures, but can't work out what normally happens here. The alternatives seem to be either putting the screen high up, at the point where the topmast shroud would just touch the outer edge of the screen. That would be about 10 feet up, which would be absurd and inconvenient.
The other would be having a hole in the base of the screen for the topmast shroud to pass through - big enough to take the eye.
Any views anyone on what is normally done? I had envisaged unclipping the screens when not in use, but that becomes more complicated if there is a wire through them.
Thanks,

Cliff Pope

 

[Peterduck]

From your description, passing the shroud through the base of the light screen seems the best option. Yes, you have to make a hole large enough to pass either the spliced hard eye or perhaps a rigging screw. Either way you are left with a hole which is larger than desirable. This may be circular or rectangular, it doesn't matter. You should now fashion a plug in two halves to fill this hole around the cap shroud. How to hold it in place? If the screens ahave not been made yet, a step could be formed with a router around the perimeter of the hole, and the plug given a matching step around its perimeter. A couple of wood screws driven down the joint between the plug and the main piece will secure both, especially if it can screw into solid wood below the step. If the screens are already made, a taper formed around the hole and the plug will do the same thing. The screens should have wedges fixed on the back where they attach to the other shrouds so that the screen backs stay upright. If the capshrouds intrude less than halfway into the bases of the screens from the outboard edge, consider making a slot from the outer edge of the base in to the point where the shroud will normally rest, and then plugging the slot as described above.
Peter.

 

[mrswigglestick]

Mine's got the plainest light boards you can think of- a bit of wood about 8" wide and long enough to go between the lower shrouds. There are wedges on them for the shrouds to sit in as Peterduck describes, and the necessary brackets for the lamps, and that's it. As they aren't the sort of three-sided boxes you often see, they don't foul the topmast srouds. I don't know if they screen the lamps to the proper angles though; I just hope the lamps themselves are somewhere near!

 

[Mirelle]

Have three sided boxes (substantial enough for us to keep the Seagull 40+ out of harm's way at sea by hanging it off the inboard side of the port light boards!) but the light boards are secured to the aft pair of the three lower shrouds and high enough (about 6ft off the deck) for the cap shrouds to pass outboard of them.