use bicycle chain as a weight on some strong fishing line.
if you do have a conduit then you can use a electrician's wire pulling snake

 

Use a short piece of bicycle chain or even just a steel bolt. Measure the distance from the top of the mast to the opening you want to come out of and mark the piece of line so that you at least know when the steel bit is close.

But then, instead of an electricians fish-tape, just use a magnet off one of your old speakers (sure you have, everyone has one in the garage ) The magnet will attract the steel bit through the mast aluminium and allow you to drag the steel bit to the opening. Voila!!!

 

You can use a plumb bob tied to a nylon string. You may have to make several attempts to get it through, but it should eventually get through. Just make sure whatever weight you use can exit through the opening at the keel step.

Once it's through, get a heavier rope and pull that through with the string. That way you have a strong pull line that won't break.

Strip the insulation off the wire about 6 in. and bend that over the pulling eye. This keeps the head small and less likely to get caught. When making up the head, use electrical tape and stretch it tightly as you wrap the head and make sure there is nothing to snag. Leave a tail in the tape so it's easier to remove. Also add a pull line to it so so you have something in the event you want to fish something through later.

If there was a lot of tension pulling up, you could feed the new cable down from the top. It's a bit tricky (I've done it) but it takes a lot of tension off the pulling rope. It's also easier to tell when you've hit a snag.

 

Julie, I REALLY like the idea of running the extra line for next time.

 

One of the many things you learn as an electrician.

 

Thanks.
I will need to run the cable through the mast head down. It is a ST70 Wind transducer which as the mounting base connected to the new cable. It's not a problem climbing the mast and dealing with this.
Sounds like drilling out a little bit larger hole at the mast head and running some kind of weight. I like the small bike chain, maybe a few links or perhaps fishing sinkers.
Worth a try.

 

I done this down the conduit with a spool of fishing line and a sinker. Once you get it out the bottom of the conduit in and out of the mast, tape the wind transducer cable to it at the top of the mast and pull it through. After you are finished go back up and cut the fishing line and attach it at the head of the conduit with some slack. And cut the llne at the base of the mast and attach it also.

Now you have a permanent messenger line for the next escapade ( Coax cable probably ). Fishing line wont break with weight.

 

I had the same issue recently and used my "electrician" fish tape. Well worth the money and very handy around the boat. I was able to squeeze it down the internal conduit. I did spray the wire with some silicone as well.

 

The electrician's fish tape is the right tool for the job, it is compact enough to store easily and will not get hung up on crap like plumb bobs and that sort of thing, plus that pulling wire through little conduits is what it was made for, so it will do the job.

Go to Home Depot, or Lowe's or wherever and get yourself one and eliminate a ton of headaches, if you do not already have one or have a friend who has one to loan you.

 

You may have a different route if you are working wintin a conduit, but if your traveling down the open interior of the mast, the best technique is to drop a lead fishing weight from a small line down from the mast head. First prepare an 18" piece of dental floss tied to the wegtht with a cotton ball on the bitter end. When the fishing weight hits the bilge ceiling apply a hand vacuum to the access hole at the base of the mast in order to suck in the cotton ball and your access to the messenger line. Of course. it's best to have a weight that will pass through your access hole at the mast step.

 

Great tip with the cotton ball and vacuum.....I had to use a pair of surgeons hemostats to get mine " captured" through the opening

 

Reading threads like this remind me just how much I enjoyed installing my wireless tack tick mast head unit

But there are some really good tips here

 

Reading threads like this remind me just how much I enjoyed installing my wireless tack tick mast head unit

But there are some really good tips here

It's nice to play amongst the wealthy . . . . .

 

when we put up the mast the bottom end of the main halyard was not secured. it ended up 3/4 of the way up inside the mast. i thought i would try to push it back down while sitting in the bo'sn's chair. i pushed it over the sheave & it went down the mast. then my friend used a bent wire as a hook to pull it out the hole. i had a snake with, but didn't need it.

 

Whatever you do with a fishtape, make sure you always tape up the end hook WELL so you don't hook things when pulling it back. A fishtape can work well (I carry a 50' tape aboard as std. equip.) but in this case, it may be better to drop a weighted line down, as some have mentioned. If lowered carefully, a weighted line will not have a tendency to wrap as a fishtape can. Fishtapes have a memory from being rolled on the coil. You can use a fishtape with a 1/2 hook on it to grab the line at the bottom. If the mast does not have a conduit, it may be a good time to put one in. With internal halyards, a conduit is a good idea. A continuous piece of 100# poly water line or something like it would probably work and could possibly be pushed UP from the bottom through a hole in the mast. It could then be attached to the mast by some inventive use of zip ties through small holes in the mast.

 

I'm with Chef. Looks like folks have blown right past his suggestion but it is a legitimate method. Electricians running wire thru conduit use pom-poms and light string with a hefty shop vac to do the job. There's also a plastic dart with a bobbin in the rear to pay out line as it flies. It will depend on how big the holes are though. When I rewired mine (laying down) I strung foam marshmallows every 6 inches or so. Now, even in pitching seas, the wires are silent inside. Halyards . . . not so much.

If you try to just drop a line down, get a long nylon tie strap, form a loop and stuff it in the hole. It should expand back out to as big as it can. There's a chance that the line will fall inside it and you can just draw it out like a lasso. If not, no harm no foul.

 

Electricians NEVER try to blow a line through conduit that already has wire in it. That only creates problems as the mouse (whatever you tie the string to) will get snagged on, or pinched between, the wires. Most mast chases (usually a plastic conduit) already have wire in them. Trying to blow a string through them is an exercise in futility.

When the conduit is empty we use foam cylinders with a nylon jet line attached to it and blow it through with compressed air (CO2 or a compressor) or suck it through with a vacuum. The longer the run, the less effective the vacuum. I've used a full size compressor for really long runs in larger conduit.

While the foam cylinders can be found on most jobs and are often used, a baggie with a jet line attached to it can work better, especially on smaller conduits. But you typically don't see vacuums or compressed air used on short runs. We typically use fish tapes. And of those different types, the spring steel are most commonly used, but we're talking metallic conduit.

In the mast, I'd choose the slinky. As you are dropping it down, you can easily spin it if it gets caught and it will find its way through. But they're not cheap. A 50' Sparks will cost you about $75.00. That's why I didn't initially suggest it.

 

Electricians NEVER try to blow a line through conduit that already has wire in it. That only creates problems as the mouse (whatever you tie the string to) will get snagged on, or pinched between, the wires. Most mast chases (usually a plastic conduit) already have wire in them. Trying to blow a string through them is an exercise in futility.

When the conduit is empty we use foam cylinders with a nylon jet line attached to it and blow it through with compressed air (CO2 or a compressor) or suck it through with a vacuum. The longer the run, the less effective the vacuum. I've used a full size compressor for really long runs in larger conduit.

While the foam cylinders can be found on most jobs and are often used, a baggie with a jet line attached to it can work better, especially on smaller conduits. But you typically don't see vacuums or compressed air used on short runs. We typically use fish tapes. And of those different types, the spring steel are most commonly used, but we're talking metallic conduit.

In the mast, I'd choose the slinky. As you are dropping it down, you can easily spin it if it gets caught and it will find its way through. But they're not cheap. A 50' Sparks will cost you about $75.00. That's why I didn't initially suggest it.

Why that was silly of you not to suggest it when it was nearly free in comparison to everything else used on a boat ...LOL

I never have had any real problems with a steel fish tape, but I have only run maybe a few thousand yards of conduit, well maybe a couple of dozen miles, only four or five buildings worth and they were not huge. On some jobs we used a huge Joy Compressor like you run a jack hammer off of to blow the line through, and a huge glob of that old yellow snot stuff, what was that called, yellow 77 or something like that, but thank goodness I have not had to do that since I was a kid.

I would buy the slinky thingy, just because I would love to have a really good one to work on other people's boats, next time I go to Granger's I will have to get one. Maybe I can figure out a way to fit all the tools I like to carry onto a boat smaller than the Queen Mary

 

If you are going to buy the fish tape and ultimately store it aboard, make sure you extent it full length after the job and protect with lube film before coiling back in the disc, avoids the ugly rusty coil next time around All tools should be properly maintained, and only loaned out VERY sparingly

 

We used to call the yellow pulling lube "goose grease." +1 on using a plain old steel fishtape.

 

I second the comment about taping the hook end of the flat fish tape. I (attempted to) use one to run the new radar cable (from mid-mast no less) through an internal conduit (a slit PVC pipe fitted over a "T" on the inside corner of the mast extrusion).

Two problems - said PVC pipe was not one continuous run, apparently about halfway along the tape exited the conduit in the gap between one section and another, then went the rest of the way somewhere in the middle of the mast. Then when trying to pull the fish back it became clear it was stuck for good, and eventually I had to resort to cutting the fish and going back to "plan A" (which apparently everyone else does), namely pulling out the nav/deck light wire and using that to pull through a string, then the radar cable and replace nav/deck light cable. My concern about losing the existing cable (as the original poster did) was what prompted me to try the fish tape instead. In the end, the "old way" worked better.

I hate to admit that, as the mast was laying on the boat on its cradle, with the bottom end hanging about 4' aft of the the stern and some 14' off the ground, I did not notice when the fish tape reached the bottom... and hooked on the end of the mast itself. It had in fact exited the conduit about half-way, but I missed my measurement and hadn't realized I'd fed enough fish to reach the end, which was on the "far side" of the mast, between the furler, shrouds, halyards, and all that "stuff" that gets bundled with the mast when it's stowed for transit, and so invisible. Was kind of surprised when the cut section slid out the bottom so nicely. So I now have two fish tapes.

In short, tape the end, watch that hook, and if you have a conduit, it may not be a single piece.