Association Forum - rewiring 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 25 Specific Forum

rewiring the mast

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Dan86
Navigator

Member Avatar

130 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/14/2003 : 22:10:40

I was checking out my batteries and decided to check out my steaming and anchor lights and found that the wires had basically rotted at the deck fitting. Since obtaining the boat in Feb I have been on different projects with this now needing to be addressed more urgently if I plan on anchoring out. I looked in the catalina direct manual and they recommend putting a conduit inside the mast for wiring if I have internal halyards. Have any of you done this, and any recommendations regarding wire etc would be most appreciated. I guess I will finally have to lower the mast, with the latest advice of "lower the mast, lower the mast, lower the mast" ringing in my memory from a previous thread. thanks Dan CK1, 86 TR/FK

Edited by - on

Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 09/14/2003 : 23:20:25

Dan,

I rewired my whole boat (1979 C-25) which included installing mast wiring and internal halyards.

Re: "...putting a conduit inside the mast for wiring if I have internal halyards... any recommendations regarding wire etc..."

I used 3/4" thinwall PVC conduit with really short 1/8" aluminum pop rivets every 18" or so. See "This Old Boat" by Don Casey for detailed proceedure. I was able to cram a 5-cond 14-ga. cable, VHF coax, and a 1/16" 7x7 SS support cable through the 3/4" PVC, but if I had it to do over, I'd use the next size larger conduit. I tapered the elec. harness down to 3 wires above the spreaders by splicing on a 3-cond 14-ga. double insulated cable at that point.

I used the Forespar(?) 5-pin deck connector where the new wiring has to pass though the deck. The 5 conductors are: common ground, anchor light, steaming light, foredeck light, and a spare circuit to the masthead. I used marine grade double insulated 14-gauge wire based on calculated current loads and a 3% or less voltage drop specified for legally required or safety related circuits. Sixteen gauge would probably work almost as well.

I used two separate sections of wiring conduit routed in an aft corner of the extrusion beside the luff groove with about a 12" to 18" or so gap at the spreaders. The upper section ends maybe 6" or so inside the top of the mast extrusion. The lower section ends maybe 2' above the deck. (My halyards exit above the gooseneck.) To keep the internal halyards from chafing on anything in the spreader area, I wedged a 2' or so piece of maybe 1-1/4" or 1-1/2" thinwall PVC pipe in front of the various spreader thru-bolts, and routed both 3/8" dacron doublebraid halyards through it.

While you've got the mast down (come on it's not that hard,<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> it's a trailer sailor), this would be a good time to very thoroughly inspect all rigging, and repair or replace anything that looks the least bit suspect.

I hope you find at least some of that helpful.

-- Leon Sisson

Edited by - on

Dan86
Navigator

Members Avatar

130 Posts

Response Posted - 09/15/2003 : 07:15:23

Leon, thanks for the expert advice, I think any advice from you is considered the "Gold Standard" for our boats.<img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle> What a great forum. Dan CK 1 86 fk/tr

Edited by - on

Gloss
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1916 Posts

Response Posted - 09/15/2003 : 07:30:38

I agree that Leon has the mast wiring thing down. I appreciate someone who likes to do things right.
I completely rewired my 22 mast by installing a conduit and all new wiring, and have to do it again on my 25 this winter.

Leon, where did you get your marine grade 14-5 cable. That's exactly the cable I want. I plan on using the fifth wire to illuminate the windex light. I may just run a 16-3 above the spreaders as I plan on changing to an LED anchor light.
tell me more about your deck fitting too, please. How did you get this wire to feed into it, or in other words, did it fit?
Thanks

Frank Gloss
89WK/TR

Edited by - on

Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 09/16/2003 : 11:57:50

Frank,

Re: "...where did you get your marine grade 14-5 cable"? West Marine, "Ancor" brand, #155010, special order item.

Re: "I plan on using the fifth wire to illuminate the windex light." Yeah, that or a masthead tri-color nav. light.

Re: "...more about your deck fitting..." [url="http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=28141&catalogId=10001&classNum=316&subdeptNum=124&storeNum=9"]Aqua-Signal #80100-7[/url] (Not Forespar, sorry.) <img src="http://www.westmarine.com/images/full/03368_f.jpg" border=0>

Re: "How did you get this wire to feed into it, or in other words, did it fit?" What? You must have been looking over my shoulder. Yeah, it's a tight fit. I think I had to leave out a grommet and use silicone goo instead. It's such a cool part that it's worth the effort to make it work.

-- Leon Sisson

Edited by - on

Gloss
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1916 Posts

Response Posted - 09/16/2003 : 19:09:16

Thanks for the help Leon,
I'll add those parts to the pile of parts to be put on the boat

Frank Gloss
89WK/TR

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/17/2003 : 11:39:22

FWIW, Catalina Direct has the exact replacement for the deck connector set that's on my boat. They just need to know whether yours has a little pie-shaped peg where they plug together.

Dave Bristle - 1985 C-25 #5032 SR-FK-Dinette-Honda "Passage" in SW CT

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.