General Info: Cable slap in mast

[Yot101]

Hi everyone. I know that this topic has been addressed ad nauseam, however the solution seems, at best, evasive. I've tried pushing a hot water insulation sleeve with a 32mm internal diameter which I split along it's length and encircled all the cables in, up through the short conduit. I also tried doing this with a 25mm PVC pipe that I split along it's length. However, as you can see in the attached photo the cables appear to "bend" sharply as they exit the conduit. Neither the insulation nor the PVC conduit went past this bend. What I'd like to know is if anyone knows if these cables are somehow tethered at the base of the mast, thus not allowing something to be pushed up. My next idea is to fill the mast with polystyrene balls.... which I feel is fraught with ecological issues. Any ideas?

[HeinSdL]

At the moment the cables in my mast are quite noisy, especially below decks in the cabin when rolling. Later this year I am taking down the mast and I am thinking of using something like this dyneema cover to contain all the wires. Held firmly at/near the mast top within the mast I am hoping to be able to tension this protecting cover once the mast is back up by pulling down on it and securing at the mast foot. And so once it is tensioned up (the amount of tension I can then vary to see what works best) this lazy slapping of the wires it contains with every roll will hopefully become at least less pronounced and might perhaps even cease.

[er9]

im going to try wrappig mine with the foam covering they use for wrapping hot water pipes. not too much just a few 12" pieces spaced evenly apart. several layers at each location to try and get a nice fat padding of foam then going to gorilla tape them in place to the wire so they dont slip or slide down. unfortunately this means im going to have to run halyards outside the mast instead of inside. worth it though mine are so loud at times i cant fall to sleep.

[Bean Counter]

Originally Posted by Yot101

Hi everyone. I know that this topic has been addressed ad nauseam, however the solution seems, at best, evasive. I've tried pushing a hot water insulation sleeve with a 32mm internal diameter which I split along it's length and encircled all the cables in, up through the short conduit. I also tried doing this with a 25mm PVC pipe that I split along it's length. However, as you can see in the attached photo the cables appear to "bend" sharply as they exit the conduit. Neither the insulation nor the PVC conduit went past this bend. What I'd like to know is if anyone knows if these cables are somehow tethered at the base of the mast, thus not allowing something to be pushed up. My next idea is to fill the mast with polystyrene balls.... which I feel is fraught with ecological issues. Any ideas?

Were you thinking tiny balls like in a bean bag or larger spheres. The trouble with smaller ones is that they would leak out the mast fittings, also the venturi effect may cause them to be sucked up and out the mast top halyard gaps. The larger spheres may squeak and depending on size may contribute to jamming halyards. The problem with putting a fill in , or even blocks of foam along the way, is that if you ever lose an internal halyard it will be impossible to re-thread with mast up.


I saw a Catana mast once in a yard that had all the electric cables put inside a constricting netting sausage. I guess the sausage ends could be tensioned so as not to bang around so much. You might need to take the mast down to do this though. The radar wires will need to exit mid way.

[Adelie]

I don't know about an after the fact fix, but if you have the mast down and are threading the wiring up, use 3 or 4 cable ties every foot, with their tails left on and splayed out in opposing directions (yep, uses lots of cable ties) which holds all the cable approximately centered in the mast. Not the greatest solution if halyards are led internally.

Good luck.

[Yot101]

Yes, the polystyrene balls are simply a 'no go' when you think of the environmental impact. Taking the mast down will have to be considered at our next take out. I would still like to know if the cables are tethered at the base of the mast. I have taken a photo which seems to show they are, but I'm not able to add the photo to this forum. Tech challenged!

[Draughty]

Hi,
It seems unlikely to me that your Lagoon mast would not have either an internal extruded channel for wiring or have had PVC conduit fastened internally to run wires through, or some other provision. Maybe someone has previously done a quick and easy addition of equipment on the mast and just dropped the wire(s) down the inside.

My mast got very noisy some years ago and it turned out the top several metres of conduit had come adrift and was slapping against the mast.

I can't see a solution that doesn't involve taking the mast out.
Agree polystyrene balls a bad idea!
Can't see photos.

Rgds

[myosys]

Originally Posted by Adelie

I don't know about an after the fact fix, but if you have the mast down and are threading the wiring up, use 3 or 4 cable ties every foot, with their tails left on and splayed out in opposing directions (yep, uses lots of cable ties) which holds all the cable approximately centered in the mast. Not the greatest solution if halyards are led internally.

Good luck.

Eventually, the tails of the cable ties snap off. It was quiet for a while at least. I used big black cable ties :shrug: but in the end their tails were all at the mast step when we pulled the mast for maintenance.