Mast to deck wiring chase

[Clint]

I am looking for some pictures of how you guys get the wiring from the mast to the deck. I am not interested in having the wiring go through the mast step on the deck, but would like to have the wiring external to the mast. I have heard everyone say that they take the 45 degree stanchion bases and put a piece of hose in between. I would like to see some pics of this setup.

Thanks,

Clint

[Tim]

For my situation, I chose a 1" SS through hull fitting (since it has a nice, small, clean flange) mounted through the deck with the hose nipple facing up, and a 1" round pulpit base (90°).

I absolutely love this wiring setup. It's the only way to go in my opinion.

Inside:


Outside:


Mast Fitting (sorry for the bad picture):


In action:

[Ric in Richmond]

Ignore the "the king of the world" imitation and you can see a 45 on the mast. There is a 90 on the deck.

http://bp2.blogger.com/_Kzj6D30pfQU/Rlt ... G_4632.JPG

[Clint]

Thanks guys, thats what I was looking for.

[Idon84]

That is slick!

I will most probably have external wires on my wooden mast so I'll have to figure something else out...

[Clint]

Tim,

On the interior where the thru-hull is, do you have a cover that goes over the wiring or is it left exposed?

[Tim]

I wrapped all the wires together in black tape and secured the bundle neatly up against the corner between the overhead and the adjacent beam, but it is exposed. It would be nicer if it were covered with some nice wood trim, but I haven't gotten around to that. My wiring needs to be accessible since I remove the mast every season, and therefore must undo the wiring connections, but that doesn't mean I couldn't have built some sort of trim to cover it.

Now that my secret's out, I'm suitably embarrassed and will have to build some wood trim this winter. ;<)

[cmartin]

Excellent thread, this is on my short list.

Is it recommend to pass the antenna wire in the same bundle? It seems the connector might be too large to pass though the deck fitting. Or, should you run the wire from the radio directly to the antenna with a removable connector?

[Tim]

If you use a large enough fitting (such as 1"), the antenna connector fits through easily.

[mitiempo]

Tim's set-up looks great. My problem is I have wires coming out of the mast base at three different spots. Previously there was three separate holes in the deck - now filled in. Any ideas?
Brian

[Tim]

The bottom of my mast looked like Swiss cheese, with several small holes and one ragged large hole. I cleaned up the largest hole and used it for my wiring exit, and filled the old holes.

Assuming your holes are smaller, simply reroute all your wires through a single, larger hole in the mast. You can either leave the old holes as is, or patch them with epoxy and paint.

[mitiempo]

Thanks Tim, that makes sense. Currently I am afloat and wasn.t planning to pull the mast this year, but when I do that'll be the plan.
Brian

[Zach]

Cool idea!

I'm with Idon though... my mast is slap full of super hard structural foam. Any slick ways to do an external wire run?

Zach