We pulled the mast this weekend in order to run the cable for the new anemometer, replace some bad wiring to the spreader lights, and install a couple new halyards. Also the lens on the steaming/anchor light combo is practically opaque. The good news is, at least for a week or two, I won’t have to be scurrying around on deck in my underwear at 3am securing noisy halyards.
The bad news is that getting wires where we want them in the mast is turning out to be fairly difficult.
We have always been annoyed by the sound of wires slapping around inside that mast when rolling at anchor. One of our primary objectives was to fix this.
We got all the wire run from the masthead, but now we’re having trouble with the wires for the spreader lights. It’ll have to wait until next weekend to figure out.
i replaced my masthead light with an 'optolamp amazonia' a few years ago and was really happy with it: anchor, emergency strobe, tricolor, all LED, in a small package. planning on doing it again on my latest boat, and i'd recommend it to everyone -- way better than messing around climbing the mast to fix bad bulbs, or bad connections or weird fit problems with LED retrofits. they're a little hard to find in the US but svendsens has them for $225. the only downside was it requires i think 4 wires, but fishery supply sells a small gauge multistrand type of line that works, though, like everything, it's pricey.
ReplyDeleteand coat with anyhydrous lanolin (cheap at the the lactate section of most pharmacy) onto any SS that goes into the aluminum mast, to stop corrosion!
i solved the wire slap by using 3/4" pipe insulation, ziptied onto the cables. that's worked pretty well, gets the noise down about 90%. tying multiple (like 3 or 4) zip ties at each spot and pointing the tails out in different directions also helps.
and i also struggled getting new wires in the right place in the mast... it seems so easy, lol, until you are doing it! took us about 4 tries, what a comedy of errors. lay it all out alongside the mast first.