In or Out the Mast ?

[nickmerc]

Do a search on this forum for ideas to stop wire slap. There have been a few threads about it. With a keel stepped mast it is, in my opinion, a no brainer to run the wires internally. All of your connections will be out of the weather so corrosion issues will be minimal.

[smurphny]

Originally Posted by Barquito

Yikes. I will have to poke around my Alberg designed Bristol 27 (same beam supported mast step).

What originally clued me in to this issue was when I was investigating windvanes. There's a great video of Jean De Sud's circumnav. in the 60s? that shows when the boat experienced a collapsed area under the step which required a stop for repairs. It also shows his knock down and demasting in the 40s. It's a pretty neat video, made to sell his self-steerer. My deck was obviously somewhat compressed and got worse under the step before I fixed it but luckily the beam had been replaced by someone else already and was ok. Why Pearson ever left balsa core under the mast step on these boats is beyond me. It would not have been a major cost to make it solid.

[nickmerc]

On my P30 the core under the mast step is plywood.

[Waltthesalt]

I built a ss shield over a radar wire at the deck where ti ran into the mast. it's close enough to the mast not to be a problem. To avoid the cable slapping around inside the mast before I pulled the cable thru I attached a tiewrap about every eight inches leaving the tail uncllipped. They were rotated about 45 deg from each other, so the tails stuck out in all directions and held the cable in the mast without moving about. So far so good its been about 7 years.

[Faster]

Depending on the configuration of your compression post/mast step it may be possible to run your wire down through the mast step into the cabin on a deck stepped mast rather than do the exposed on-deck connection. You'll probably have more luck with a compression tube rather than a solid post, but even so there may be room to drill a hole for the wire - perhaps into a head compartment to 'hide' it a little. This would keep the pass-through out of the weather and avoid the tripping hazard and the need for a waterproof connector. If the mast is down now it's a good time to check into that.

In-mast will definitely look cleaner..

[Squidd]

After closer examination of wireing (done during thorough examination of standing rigging) I have decided to replace external single strand copper wireing with multistrand copper run internally, Will be moveing the vhf cable internal as well..

Holes were already in mast and with careful measurement, I should end up with a short tails I can tuck up in mast end to get thru partner then pull out and tuck in settee locker for connection to boat harness...

Looks like multi plastic ties is the way to go for slap resistance...