Running Mast Wiring Woes

[exMaggieDrum]

Well done!

[JPA Cate]

HEY, MATE, CONGRATULATIONS!

Well done, sir!

Halleluja!

A

[UNCIVILIZED]

Glad it worked out. As to the future, or for anyone else who's REALLY stuck:

- Take a piece of rigging wire. Put a siezing on it 1" from the end. Slightly splay out the tips of that end of the wire. Insert the other end of said wire into the chuck of a Strong power drill. Make a piece of PVC, with a small notch milled into the end, so that you can use it to pin the soon to be rotating rigging wire, in place on the inside of the mast. Then have one person fire up the drill, while the other guides things inside of the mast, with the PVC tool & a flashlight.

Knock on wood, it should make a hole in any foam that's in there, obstructing things. Just watch out for your other wiring, if it's not already in a conduit.

And if things are Really bad, heat up the end of the splayed out rigging wire just prior to sticking it into the mast. But also, have a charged hose handy as a precaution.

Also, simply heating up the (non-splaye) rigging wire tip to red hot, but sans all of the drill sillyness is an options is well.

-> Desperation time = Desperate measures.
Pull off the masthead, & put leaders in for all of your halyards.
Then take your; Bow, Crossbow, Scuba gun, or improvised ad hoc Blowgun (use your Scuba bottle for propellant force, needs be). Tie a line onto the arrow/dart. And after ascertaining that you have a stout backstop. Drop the hammer. Such should get your leader line fully through the mast.

And for a more directed placement of said "bolt" being fired into the obstruction. Make your Blowgun out of some kind of (stiff walled) tubing which reaches all the way down to the obstruction.
That way you're not "firing" unaimed at things. IE: You have Much more control over where the hole will be.
Also, it might be wise to rig up something to hold your blowgun tubing in the right spot when you "fire". As the pressure from the air & the dart will likely make it jump around a bit, if it's not pinned down.

*** The caveat/caution to this would be to use a relatively fragile, dull dart/arrow if you can, so as not to maim any conduit/wiring (already in place) or damage your spreader bars, etc.
As I said, "Desperate Times".

Plus, whenever your mast is down, always run a pair of, or replace the couple of spare wires which you'd previously installed in your conduit. That way you know that said spares aren't old & corroded, when you need them most.
It helps to avoid FUBAR mast wiring situations when you least have the tools to deal with them.