Wire down the mast

[samwise]

I need to wire up a new masthead light arrangement and I would appreciate any tips on getting the wire down the mast. The rig is off the boat and horizontal, so I can't use gravity. Any ideas would be welcome.

 

[Deleted member 478]

If there is an existing wire (e.g. your VHF aerial cable), attach a mouse-line (a long piece of string) and pull the exisiting wire up the mast, then using the string, pull the new wire and the exisiting wire back down again.


<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.stingo.co.uk>http://www.stingo.co.uk</A> - now showing at a computer near you

 

[Strathglass]

Borrow or buy a couple of drain rod sets, that is if you can't use an existing wire to pull a new pair through as mentioned above.
Iain

 

[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

I used a hose pipe, stiff enough to push up inside the mast, tie off wire extract.

easy peazy /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<font color=blue> Julian </font color=blue>

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ukstaffords.com>http://www.ukstaffords.com</A>

 

[gary_yank]

A long roll up tape measure (33 m), push the tape down and tie on then roll it up.

 

[vyv_cox]

Kemp mast extrusions have a pocket for wires that is accessible from alongside the mainsail track. Saves having wires mixed up with halyards and frapping on the mast walls. Otherwise, using another cable to pull through a mouse line is the best option. You could use a halyard to do the same thing but you may need to be ingenious with cap and heel fittings.

You may already be aware of an idea presented on this forum many times. To avoid frapping where the wire must go down inside the mast, attach long tie-wraps at intervals of about 1 metre, each one rotated about 120 degrees from the previous one. When installed this hold the wire approximately central in the mast section.

 

[jonjo]

When pulling the mouse and new wire back through the mast I find that wrapping spinnaker tape around the joint helps make it streamlined and snag free.

 

[AndrewB]

This is the method I have used, but if no other wire is available, then I have used a magnet on the outside to coax a galvanised shackle pin attached to light whipping twine along the mast.

Loose wires inside a mast are a bit of an aborrence, as they will clang in the night. If there is not a reasonably tight conduit to run them down, then they must either be tied off at intervals or padded with insulating foam.

 

[philmarks]

Following a lot of advice on this forum (thanks!), I've driven steel conduit up the mast through the PU foam (15m length). I've run mouse lines through this using thin 3 metre lengths of oval conduit taped together and joined with lengths of dowel - inserted up the steel conduit and fished out at the top (I can't get my mashead fitting off), then mouse lines attached and withdrawn down steel tube. I will thread my cables through round plastic 25mm conduit , joining lengths and injecting PU foam in conduit at the same time, then withdraw the steel conduit and use the mouse lines to pull up the cables and the plastic conduit at the same time. Nearly there, bugger of a job, and I've got two masts to do (@ 15m each). Masts are horizontal (obvious I know....)

There is a final part, but I'll not bore you with that until I've figured out how to do it...

Good luck

 

[seaesta]

Next time try pushing some galvanised wire through and then tying onto that. I have used this several times to good effect. The galv wire is the sort used for fencing and available from farm equipemnt places. You will need 1 hole in the top or base of the mast to push the wire into / pull it out of but you can "hook it out" of a side hole at the opposite end. File a slot onto the end of the wire so you can tie onto it.
Put cable ties onto the wire you are installing at 9 inch intervals to stop it clanking about inside the mast and keeping you awake when at anchor
Martin

 

[montezuma]

You could try a couple of guard rails joined together as a draw-wire. Unscrew the loops, bottlescrews, or pelican clips and join the two together - if the threads work, you may even be able to do this with one of the bottlescrews.

 

[saturn]

did this job myself last week,difficult because my mast had foam packed in it at intervals, i removed base and cap and shoved chimney sweep rods through with rope attached then pulled cable through with another 4 mm rope so if i need to pull another cable later i will be ok.