Mast wiring through deck with gooseneck

[Shawn]

I'm adding a Nasa marine wind meter to the top of my mast. I have been working through how to pass the cable through the deck. The cable itself has five connectors so I didn't want to go with a 5 pin deck plug as I'm sure I would be fighting corrosion with that.

I'm planning on using a stainless steel goose neck like this:



Halberg Rassy and Dufour use this method on their boats.

Basically you put a drip loop in the wire right before it enters the swan neck and then it passes into the boat making the connections inside the cabin. Due to the shape it keeps water out and is very easy to add more cables later on. I'd probably redo my VHF and steaming light wiring through this as well. The 2 pin steaming light connection has been an ongoing corrosion problem. Moving the connections inside the cabin reduces corrosion problems.

Probably put it off center (so the mast can drop) and behind where the deck is reinforced for the mast step.

Anybody else tried this on their 23?

Shawn

[skip1930]

That thing looks pretty large. However adequate for a bundle of wires and it's a great idea to keep connections where corrosion won't effect them...solder them and be done with it.

If you take the mast off the boat you'll have to cut the wires at some point. Or have DIN connectors down below. Don't make it unsightly. There is no compression post to hide the wiring behind. So???

NO...I would not drill through the plywood reinforcement for the tabernacle. That's a direct path for water to get to the wood. It's a pretty small target to hit.

Go through the cabin top and glass and filler. About three inches. And to either side of the mast/tabernacle.

Be mindful that when the mast comes down some goodly amount of wire slack will be necessary.

Bon Chance. skip

[brackish]

There is no compression post to hide the wiring behind. So???

In fact, most 23's have a slot either in the bulkhead trim piece or, in my case, it is in the bulkhead panel itself.  The panel is finished teak on one side, and HPL on the other which was put over the unfinished back of the  teak ply after the slot was routed.  That is where the wires go, but in order to access it you have to drill on the centerline of the bulkhead.  Clams and connectors don't work like chainplates, so I have little fear that a leak will ever open up on the wiring connectors.

Com-Pac did a nice job of designing in wiring chases that don't cause you to have exposed wiring all over the place.

As far as the gooseneck, going to have to ponder that.  Have had zero problems with my four pin connector.  Maybe because of mostly fresh water use.

[Shawn]

Skip,

The gooseneck is about 6" tall and about 1.5" ID.

I will probably put DIN connectors on down below hidden out of sight for off season when I take the mast down.

The bulkhead hides the existing wiring (steaming light, VHF) very well. I just had to go through that to install a pair of these:


for the  V berth.

I wasn't planning on drilling through the wood, just aft of where the wood is. That would mean a little bit of exposed wiring till I hide it though. To complicate this a bit I'm planning on putting a solid fuel heater on the starboard bulkhead.

If I did decide to go through the wood I'd do it the same way I did on my Flying Scot which has a balsa cored hull and deck. Drill the hole larger then need. Put a bent nail in a drill. Use that the route out more of the wood core away from the hole. Cover the bottom of the hole and then fill the whole thing with epoxy and filler. Once that hardens you drill through the expoxy with the proper size and you have a very nice plug of epoxy to protect the core.

Shawn

[skip1930]

Shawn, sounds like a plan to me.

Back in 1987 or so we built a paint finishing line for Windsor Plastic Products and used 5 Funac painting robots and Carol Controls, The Canadian powers that be decided that the Carol Controllers were NOT intrinsically safe...meaning electrical switches were thrown both with air pilot valves [witch is OK] and electrical solenoid [which is not OK]. Somebody had a wild hair about sparks igniting the paint fumes at the base of the robot or that these heavier then air fumes would follow the wiring conduit up 4 meters to the Carol Controllers mounted above the paint booths in the down flow dry paint spray booths.

So after the whole system was up and running we needed to seal the 5~4 inch dia. conduits each with 5 gallons of poured two part epoxy right down inside the conduit and forever sealing those 532 wires for each of five robots and 5 controllers and pray for no mis-wired or broken conductors...you don't think fingers were crossed?

That's $500 k [U.S.] per robot and controller...skip.

[Shawn]

Just as an update on this. I ended up installing the gooseneck. I had to cut it down under the flange so it didn't stick out below the headliner.

Used a 2" hole saw rotating backwards to cut through the deck. Went through easy that way. Then sanded off the non-slip around the hole, drilled the mounting holes and countersunk them for better sealing with the butyl tape I am using for bedding hardware.







Need to run the wiring for the wind sensor still but it will be easy to get it through the deck now.

Shawn

[Bob23]

Nice job...I hope the jib sheets don't get caught on it like they do on my gps antenna. You can kinda see it in this photo:

Bob23

[Shawn]

Hi Bob,

Yeah, I am a little worried about the sheets though I think this is far enough toward the centerline to be OK. That is why the hook aims forward, so it won't at least be a hook.

Where is your antenna in relation to the mast?

Shawn

[Bob23]

Port side, just forward of the mast. I never thought about the sheet fouling when I installed it. It doesn't foul all the time and I have an easy fix stirring about up in my grey matter.
Bob23