J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Running cables in the mast

Letting cables just dangle loose in the mast concerns me. I've been thinking about pulling the stick some weekend next season to replace my wind transducer, and I'd like to do things right.

I've heard someone mention using flexible plastic conduit that will slide into the track on the inside of the mast. Has anyone done this? What did you use?

Also, I figure I should invest in SparTite. Do I need the larger size kit, or will the smaller one work?

ok from cables calnging back and forth you now have a heavy hollow conduit tube makin noise.... ooops .. it might sound like a bell ...

Anyhow.. MUCH easier cheaper and what else...
Get a 100( 50 . even 20 will do ) pack of big fat cable ties.... Wrap them around the cables but leave the tail on.. do not cut off... the tail will wedge the whole stuff and it most likely stops makin noise...

thor

I think that you would use split wire loom. Ebay lists 177 choices. See: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Wire...mQQcategoryZ46101QQitemZ8025600832QQrdZ1
I would think that you pull it from the mast butt to the head. It sounds sweet.

Don't forget the rubber grommet to protect the wire as it passes through the mast cap.

The split wire loom is the kind of stuff that I'm talking about.

But what I'm wondering is how to attach it to the inside of the mast. Someone implied that I could get wire loom with some kind of extrusion that I could feed into the inside of the mast track. Any thoughts?

Based upon your posting I thought that you were proposing that you would pass a messenger down the mast to draw the split loom onto the groove for the boltrope. Although I have not done this, based upon some testing in my basement I think this feasible. The inherent clamping force of the loom is not great but I think that it'll be adequate to keep the loom in place.

I pulled my stick and I think that I'll try installing the loom before launching in the Spring. If I do so, I'll post the results here.

I tried the wire tie method, but found that the ties got entangled with halyards and the spreader bar. I ended up using some foam pipe insulation around the length of the wire gang, held on with wire ties. It is light weight, simple, and silent.

Feriation, I didn't think of that.... But it does sound like it might work. My big concern is preventing cables from tangling against the halyards and chafing.

I stored mast up this year, so I'm not in an urgent hurry to pull the stick. But I do want to do it this season. When I replaced the halyards a bit ago, I think they somehow got tangled around each other, so I'm going to need to yank them all out and and use a fish tape to pull them through one by one. I figure I'll upgrade my wind intstrument and pull cable loom at the same time.

Please let me know how this works for you!

Why don't you go Wireless? Just bolt the Windvane on top of the mast and your done. Saves weight aloft too.

I haven't done this on our J, but I've done it on a number of non-tapered masts.

the trick to installing the pvc conduit is to drill two holes side by side about half the diameter of the conduit apart. Use the bent coat hanger through one of the holes pull the conduit up flush with the other hole so that you can drill a hole into the conduit and fasten it to the mast with aluminum pop rivets. You repeat this every three or four feet up the lenth of the conduit. Then you fill up the extra hole with another pop rivet.

I worry about fifty feet of pvc weight aloft. I use 1/16 stainless cable which is looped at each end and bolted to the mast with two 10-24 stainless bolts and nuts. the wire loom is wire tied to this cable then fished through the mast. The hard part is getting the steaming /deck light wire to exit the wire loom and out the midportion of the mast. fishing two wires to pull the loom through is how I did it. one wire attached to the deck/steaming light and the other to the top wire. after the wires are in place then tightenand fasten the stainless cable to the mast. this keeps the slap to a mininum and takes the stress of the wire hanging fifty feet from the top grommet. Minimal weight is added. good luck missing the halyards.