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Installing a Wind Instrument

1K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Ed Kinney 
#1 ·
I want to install a wind instrument on my boat and am looking for some advice.

I think I'm going with the Raymarine i40/Rotavecta. So far I think the biggest problem I'm going to have is getting the wire down the inside of my mast. Any tricks for making this happen?

I'm attaching pics of the top of my mast to show you what I'm working with up there.

Thanks!
 

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#3 ·
Wireless is tempting but I've heard some so-so reliability on some of that stuff (not specifically RM, though)

It looks like you've got a plugged hole in the top plate of your masthead.. perhaps the wires could go down there. You should be able to string the cable with a messenger line. Mast head or deck stepped? that makes a difference where you can pull the wire out again and the complexity of getting to the display head.. also bulkhead mount or binnacle/pod mount?

Wireless does avoid all that...
 
#4 ·
If you just drop wires down the mast instead of running them in conduit, you could end up with wires and halyards afoul. You might want to wait until you can drop the mast and do it correctly or as above, consider wireless.
We've run into a couple of boats with wires slapping around inside the mast at anchor and even from several hundred feet away, it was noisy and really unpleasant in our cockpit. I can't even imagine how they could sleep with all that noise.
 
#5 ·
The trouble is that manufacturers used many different ways to secure cables in the mast, and then it might have be re-rigged and done yet another way. My Bristol has a track inside the mast, with the cables fastened to cars that run on the track, with cable ties. The only way to add a cable properly is with the mast down, and then it is still a big and tedious job.

A messenger line won't work because the cable ties all need to be cut, after pulling the entire wiring assembly out of the mast. I watched the rigger do it.
 
#6 ·
Have you looked at where the running light and coax exit the mast at deck level? You might be able to get your phone in there and snap a picture up the mast (or use one of those inspection cameras on a flexible cable). Then you'd have a better idea of what you're dealing with. My Lefeil mast has a wire chase riveted to the forward side of the mast. If you have something like that, you might be able to tie two messenger lines to one of the wires going to the masthead and use one to feed a new wire for the MHU and the other to return the original wire to it's place.
 
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