Running cables down a wooden mast

[cannon]

Hi Again is there any body got any good ideas for running my cables down my mast which is not hollow, i feel it might be a bad idea to begin screwing clips down the side of the mast in case of future splitting, i will be running 3 cables from top, then pickingup another cable for my steaming light at the spreaders which will be 4. i spoke to a French man here in france who has a lovely wooden boat what he does, he said he used plastic conduit, whith S.S. clips i havent seen it yet as his mast is off, apart from worrying about splitting i do not want to spoil the look. I am desperate to make up my mind as i put mast back on Wed this week, can anybody help????

 

[KenMcCulloch]

You can simply glue them to the mast with sikaflex or something similar. I have cables down the outsid of my aluminium mast, glued into the angle between the sail track and the mast section. If you do that you need to make sure the path of the cables allows space at points where for example the pins or bolts or whatever that secure sail slides in the track, or in way of the gooseneck etc. It sounds messy but in fact it looks quite neat.

Having said that I don't think small holes for the size of screws a cable clip will need should be such a big problem. Drill an appropriate pilot hole and dribble some varnish in before the screw and it should be fine

 

[cannon]

Thanks Ken, the frenchman uses silkaflex but varnish sounds better to me

 

[Tranona]

I run mine down the side of the sail track set in clear silicone sealer on top of the varnish. I use plastic cable clips and copper tacks to hold them in place until the silicone cures and leave them in place for extra security. All comes off easily when you want to strip and refinish the mast.

 

[Peterduck]

How about running the cables down the cap shrouds instead of the mast? By siezing the cable to the shroud with marline every 4" or so it can be made quite neat.
Peter.

 

[Kukri]

One plan is to rout out a groove down the mast, lay the cables into that, then glue a spline over them.

If your solid mast is a built mast, and your craftsmanship is up to it, this may be a good idea.

If your solid mast is a grown stick, its a lousy idea, as anyone with any understanding of wood can explain.

Mine run down the cap shrouds; easy to see, easy to fix.

 

[mainmarine]

you can get wooden trunking from B&Q about 25mm wide x 15mm deep, [look in the mouldings rack] I have used this on a wooden mast, stained to match the mast timber.

 

[johnchampion]

As I hava a gaffer it is not practical to run the cables all down the mast so I use cable ties to hold the cables to the mast down to the shrouds and then reroute along the shroud to deck level.

The cable ties work well, are not obvious from deck level and have the distinct advantage that you are not making holes, however small, in the mast woodwork for damp to get in thropugh the varnish.