Prepping for Unstepping the Mast - Electrical Cables

[steveej]

Hope you all aren't in the pub......

I am in the process of prepping the boat for unstepping the mast.

I have 5 wires coming down through the deck - 2 x electrical wires for anchor light and steaming light, TV arial, VHF arial and Raymarine Wind instrument.

The wires for the light should be easy to remove, just cut off the crimps and pull them through the glands. The TV looks like it carries on through the head lining panels and goes direct to the TV - is it safe to cut this and put an F connector on it? or will it mess up the signal. Would rather not disturb the headlining panels.

The old coupling on the VHF is corroded so want to change this - can I use another F connector or is there a special connector that needs to be used.

The Raymarine wind instrument seems to be a wire going into a black box is this easy enough to remove? Hanevnt tried yet.

Finally - any tips for sealing everything up seen as it may be a couple of weeks before it goes back up.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Catalina36]

Sounds like you need some waterproof deck plugs, fitted before you take the mast out so you can connect both ends of each cable and check it still works as you go. Then when the day comes, just unplug them and put the rain covers on the sockets. Plastic bag over the end of the mast and the plugs while it's out.

 

[ip485]

Yes, your suggestions are fine - the signal loss with connectors will be very small correctly fitted. ST60 is a plug connector but you may have an earlier or later system, but I would guess they are all plug fittings.

Some tape and cling film should work fine.

 

[steveej]

well they were all glands. Cut the Co Ax TV aerial so will put an F connector on that when the mast is back. Cut the old corroded RG58 connector off the VHF and the small black box for the raymarine had 5 coloured wires which match up on the other side of the chocolate box.

Was actually quite an easy job and have double bagged each wire with sandwich bags and electrical tape.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I fitted a "deck portal" at the foot of my mast as a result of various individual cable glands leaking, round and rectangular types. The portal has a single 49mm hole. In my case I filled all the old holes and then drilled out the centre one to the full 49mm. Now all the mast cables, their connectors, including VHF, all fit through making preparing the electrics for mast stepping very easy. As the cables are lie flat then there is no issue with standing on top of it, also I have sailed in heavy weather, hosed the deck down and not a drop of water has passed through. Worth it just from the hassle free cable routing alone. It is a bit expensive.

Stainless Steel Deck Cable Lead-Thru buy now | SVB
https://media1.svb-media.de/media/snr/339/pdf/manual_en_2004-11-23.pdf

 

[rogerthebodger]

This is what I used to connect all mast wiring with plugs and connectors inside the box.