Noisy mast cables

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Tobaccoblender

Thank you gentlemen, I am sufficiently chastised and now have plenty to think about!

"Thank you sir, may I have another?" It's a CF tradition...

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by Tobaccoblender

Hi there- I had devised method in my mind but am not keen on the idea of holes going up the mast....I am not sure if I am being silly but I worry about the idea of seawater dribbling in through the holes and setting corrosion in the aluminium mast.....did you seal the holes up with anything?

As to holes in the mast wall, it's common to drill quite a number of them when installing conduit. Since you need one hole per rivet that holds the conduit against the mast wall. And you also usually need a second hole near the 1st, so that you can insert the tool which holds the conduit in place when you rivet it to the inside of the mast wall.

That said, if you don't want conduit, it's been common practice for decades to seize a sponge onto the cables in a mast every few meters. With the sponge stopping the cables from rattling around. Though, of course, the cables are also bundled together, as well as being tensioned pretty severely, so that there's much, much less play in them. Even without the sponges. The trick being, to secure them well up top, as well as at the bottom of the mast.

[JPA Cate]

Tobaccoblender,

Yes, Jim used silicone seal to plug those holes. However, water gets inside masts all the time, there are many entry holes. All our boats' masts have drained into the interior of the boat, one to the bilge, the other, to the shower sump.

Ann