Re-Wiring Mast

Re-Wiring Mast

I believe my mast is the original. The mast is out and I want to re-wire. Because the old wires are brittle and corroded I am afraid to pull the new wire using the old.

Are all the wires in conduit to keep the wires from slapping the mast? If so any hints about how to re-wire when the old wires are stuck? Even with my best flash light I can’t see what is going on that far up the mast.

Thanks in Advance,
Vincent #79

We did this about two years ago. Your wires are probably stuck at the spreaders. There should be a large enough hole to see them.
West marine sells a wire that is made up of 5 wires I think that will fit inside of the conduit. Make sure to by the wire lubricant at Home depot and use lots. We first pulled out the old wires and used a wiring snake to attach the new wires to and pulled them thru. This is no small task but we did do it so It can be done. We then installed all led lighting which works well. In retrospect we could have used a smaller gauge of wire. The leds do last along time but not forever they tend to dim and we have had to have the anchor light element replaced once. Good Luck
Lew

I have also the original mast (Hull # 73) and have not seen any conduit inside when I replaced a halyard. I did remove the sheaves at the masthead and introduced a fish to pull the halyard. I believe there is no conduit: My mast sounded like a catholic church on a Sunday morning when at anchor with a little bit of swell. I am now ready to blow styrofoam chips in the mast to reduce the noise since there is no conduit preventing these wires to bang on the walls of the mast. Are you suggesting there is a conduit from the spreaders to the masthead?

Hello Ronald,

My mast does have a conduit from abut deck level to the anchor light with an open section at the spreaders. My mast also was being used as the ground for all the lights on it. I feel this caused excessive corrosion on the mast and in the mast fittings.

I replaced the old VHF antenna wire with a new much smaller cable which gave me room in the conduit for new wires with positive and negative. The old system had only the positive wire and as I said the negative from the lights was grounded on the mast.

My mizzen is a different story. When I put the new radar in I stretched the radar cable as tight as possible to limit the noise it made but on the hook we hear it. That project I will save for another day.

Take Care,
Vincent LoRusso
#79

Our 1983 Cinkel mast has a wiring tube that goes from the top to the bottom of the mast and will slide in/out if unrestricted. If you can't get it out or if your mast does not have one a solution that has been used is to use wire ties on your wire bundle. Use long plastic ties at 18 inch centres 90 degress offset. The tails keep the bundle centred in the mast without distrupting halyard movement.

Gentlemen,

Thank You for the information. I do have a picture attached of the conduit if anyone is interested. Apparently my mast on #79 is a Cinkel.

I found a broken strand on a lower stay so now I will have time while waiting for a new rig to remove and buff the chain plates.