Association Forum - Remove the "shoe" from the base of the mast?

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 250 Specific Forum

Remove the "shoe" from the base of the mast?

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Member Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 12/28/2007 : 15:24:43

I'm getting ready to pull new antenna wire through the conduit in our mast to replace the current one that was run outside the conduit by one of the POs. I've got the cap off the top of the mast & I can see the pull string somebody thoughtfully left behind for me. Now I need to get access to the foot of the mast. The black plastic "shoe" on the bottom seems to be attached with four screws, but my two tiniest standard & phillips screwdrivers couldn't find anything to turn at the "bottom" of the holes. Maybe they're weep holes or something? The foot of the mast where the shoe attaches seems to be riveted to the mast, do I need to drill out the two rivets to get the foot & shoe off and gain access to the bottom of the conduit?

I'm trying to post pictures, but my card reader has gone stupid on me. Basically I need to get to the conduit in the base of the mast where the wires run up the mast. How do I do so?

Thanks,

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - on

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 17:32:06

I drilled out the two rivets and removed the metal base to put my VHF cable in. Not a big project. I have the VHF cable come out the side of the mast just below where the mast lights wire comes out. Drilled a hole and put in one of those rubber grommets to prevent chafe. You are looking at about a two hour project assuming you have the mast down and all the parts ready. Be sure to rig another pull line to the antenna wire. I did not have a pull line and used the old antenna wire as the pull.

I have no idea what the plastic thing is you describe.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 17:48:54

Randy,
Thanks for the response. I took some pictures, but like I said my card reader has gone TU on me. On the foot of the mast there is about a 2" thick black plastic "shoe" for want of a better word. The mast sits on top of the shoe, which is on top of the tabernacle. Your mast doesn't have one of these?

Does the foot have a set of ears or something that the rivets go into?

I figured I'd have to do something similar to what you did except my current antenna cable is outside of the conduit. I thought I'd pull the power cable down the mast with two pull lines, then use one to pull both the old power cable & the new antenna cable back up with one of the pull lines, leaving the other one there for the next time.

Edited by - on

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 18:21:26

My 2" shoe is metal, aluminum I think. That is what confused me. Yes, it has "ears" that the rivets go through.

Edited by - on

Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 18:30:12

David,
Your mast foot should look something like this.

Edited by - Tom Potter on 12/28/2007 18:32:15

britinusa
Web Editor

Members Avatar

USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 18:52:29

David, I don't think you need to remove teh mast foot. The tube ends quite a way above the base of the mast.
Snake a line down with a loop on the lower end, then fish it out of the hole you'll drill for the cable exit near the base of the mast.

Paul

Edited by - on

Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 20:43:02

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by britinusa
 David, I don't think you need to remove teh mast foot. The tube ends quite a way above the base of the mast.
Snake a line down with a loop on the lower end, then fish it out of the hole you'll drill for the cable exit near the base of the mast.

Paul
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Thats how I did it too. I left the foot on and fished the coaxial through the hole I drilled in the mast.

Edited by - Tom Potter on 12/28/2007 20:43:45

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 21:10:07

Tom,
That's pretty much what mine looks like. Is yours attached with bolts instead of pop rivets?

Paul,
The line's already down there somewhere, there's a nylon line at the top of the mast with a 1" long or so piece of PVC tubing keeping it at the top of the conduit. I guess I won't be losing anything by pulling the old antenna wire out of the mast (and dragging a new outside-the-conduit pull string up along with it which would be handy for pulling new halyards if I need to). Then I can try to find the end of the old nylon string down there with a bent coat hanger or something. If I can't fish it out, drill the rivets out, pull the foot and look for it.

Does anyone have a good source for the rubber grommets? My local Ace & car parts places had a number of choices, but none of them right. The mast extrusion is 1/8", and the cable is 1/4", finding the 1/8" groove is harder than the 1/4" ID. The OD could be anything up to about 1/2", I'll just make a hole to fit it.

Currently there are no grommets on either end, and a 90 degree bend in the antenna cable at the top of the mast, and I presume the same at the bottom. This probably explains why my reception is so spotty at times. Right angle bends in antenna cable causes signal loss due to...can't think of the term, but basically the inside wire gets too close to the outside sheath and essentially grounds out the signal. I'll look up the term, I was just reading about it last night.

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

Members Avatar

USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 21:32:52

Here ya go

[url="http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=46724&CategoryName=&SubCategoryName="]

[/url]

Paul

Edited by - britinusa on 12/28/2007 21:33:24

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 21:43:22

Thanks Paul. How do I figure out what it costs? Unfortunately the closest HF is about 20 miles away. I'll probably head to HD or Lowes in the morning to see if they've got a similar set.

Edited by - on

Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2007 : 22:15:44

David,
I got my [url="http://www.catalinadirect.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=48"]Grommets[/url] from Catalina Direct. I expect you can find them else where as Paul did.

My mast foot is pop rivited on.

Edited by - Tom Potter on 12/28/2007 22:18:31

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/30/2007 : 22:14:07

Just for reference, this is the shoe I was talking about:

I tried for 30-40 minutes to fish the pull string out of the mast with no luck, so I decided to drill out the foot rivets. Turns out I could have probably fished for another couple of hours and I'd have never have gotten it out. Unlike yours Paul, my conduit starts only about a foot up the mast. The pull string was wedged between what I presume is the masthead light & decklight cable runs. Even with a pair of long nosed pliers I had a real hard time working the pull line out of from between the two cables. Here's what it looked like on the inside, the conduit and two cable runs can be seen in the upper (front of the mast) background with the white pull cord intertwined in them, and in the foreground you can see the orange pull cord I pulled with the old antenna cable. Not sure what I'll ever use it for, but it's there. All the other debris you see is pop rivets, dirt & scrapings from when the old cable was pulled (I think).

Here's a bit better picture of how the white pull cord was intertwined, you can see it between the two, then it's sort of looped between them again at the bottom of the picture. What a pain to extract, I could barely get my arm inside the mast to get to them (while I'm standing on the very top of my ladder, not the brightest thing I've ever done).

I was finally able to extract the pull cord, but it only extended out the base of the mast by 3-4 inches. I made up a secondary pull cord from the same orange nylon as is seen in the second picture, then enlisted the help of my neighbor to pull the antenna cable through so it wouldn't get peeled on the sharp extrusion edges like the first one was. I plan to reattach the foot with a 1/4-20 x 4" bolt instead of pop rivets in case I ever need access to the foot again. This isn't likely, but you never know, and I'd rather not drill into my mast more than I have to. Of course I'll need to drill out the existing holes a tiny bit to make the 1/4-20 bolt fit.

I ran out of light, plus it was starting to rain/snow, so I decided it was time to go watch the end of the game, so I'll finish tomorrow.

Edit: Oh, and I finally (after lots of searching) found a package of assorted rubber grommets at WM. I have to admit to being irritated at them for not having the exact ones I needed w/o having to buy tons more. They had lots and lots of grommets with 1/16" groove, but none with 1/8" groove (the width of the extrusion). I looked at three different hardware stores, a couple of different car parts places, plus an electronics place. The electronics place had tons of them, but once again, no 1/8th ones.

Edited by - delliottg on 12/30/2007 22:36:26

KD4AO
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
202 Posts

Response Posted - 03/04/2009 : 08:50:15

David, any chance you have larger versions of the 2nd and 3rd picture in the above post? Looks like what I am looking for. Although I gues I might as well go ahead and pull the Mast Step Block and locate the failing wire in my mast.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 03/04/2009 : 10:19:29

Here you go:

Edited by - on

KD4AO
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
202 Posts

Response Posted - 03/04/2009 : 15:36:07

Thank you, I pulled the mast step plate and discovered the problem to be that the mast wiring color code did not match the the panel wiring in the boat. Fixed it and every thing works. Pop riveted the plate back on and done. Thanks again.

Edited by - on

Deltarat
1st Mate

Members Avatar

USA
69 Posts

Response Posted - 04/10/2009 : 23:06:48

I know this is an old thread, but is the "mast foot" standard equipment? My 82 sr/sk does not have any thing like that.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 04/10/2009 : 23:32:01

This is on a C-250, I don't know if the C-25 has the same "shoe" or not. C-25 guys?

Edited by - on

KD4AO
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
202 Posts

Response Posted - 04/11/2009 : 08:22:33

Use RG-8x Mini, 50 ohm coax.

Edited by - on

frog0911
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1349 Posts

Response Posted - 04/11/2009 : 09:04:54

Here is some pictures of entry and exit.

Edited by - on

Deltarat
1st Mate

Members Avatar

USA
69 Posts

Response Posted - 04/11/2009 : 09:40:43

I just replaced my coax and added a new steaming/deck light on my 82 c25, I used RG8x mini, and it seems to be working fine, but I was told that rg8x mini should not be used for runs over 25',
Check out this link Don Casey on maximizing gain on a VHF radio http://www.boatus.com/boattech/antennas.htm

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 04/11/2009 : 10:51:31

I'm pretty sure I used RG8x as well. It was roughly 1/4" diameter coax from Ancor. It seems to have cleaned up my signal, we had problems with our previous VHF and weren't sure if it was the radio, the antenna or the cable, so I replaced all three. At least now we don't get cyclical breaking of squelch we used to get with the old one that would drive you crazy. It was particularly annoying in high stress situations.

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.