{"id":1346,"date":"1999-11-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-11-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2015-10-16T12:15:38","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T17:15:38","slug":"mast-leak-through-electronic-cable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/mast-leak-through-electronic-cable\/","title":{"rendered":"Mast Leak Through Electronic Cable"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dear Steve, I have written before and always have received a kind and enlightening response. I recently had our mast unstepped, repainted, and rewired (spreader lights, vhf, wind NMEA, anchor lights, etc.) . The electronics guy installed a new pvc tube for a wire chase. <\/p>\n

Our mast is stepped on deck (metal boat). The wiring feeds out of the mast about 6" above the deck. The cable splits into two bundles (taped) and the two bundles are fed through metal stand pipes throughwelded through the deck (port and starboard). The teak j box in the salon leaks whenever it rains. <\/p>\n

I don’t know whether the electronics guy left a Ptrap with the wire before he fed it out of the mast. I also am wondering if the fit at the mast step could be so tight as to not allow water to drain out the step, but rather sit and collect until it gets deep enough to follow the wiring chase and ultimately end up in the cabin. <\/p>\n

I don’t want to unstep the mast again to look. And I don’t want to unnecessarily bore a hole in the mast to allow drainage if no need exists. Any advice? Thanks, Wayne <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hi Wayne: Several things to look at:
1-make sure there is a clean weep hole in the bottom of the mast. If there is no hole, I’d drill one, maybe about 10mm\/3\/8" in diameter.
2-wiring inside of the mast should make a "U" below the exit point, so any moisture on the wiring drips off before it exits.
3-the tricky part is going to be sealing the entry into the pipes on deck. These are usually in the shape of an upside down "J", again so that no water can run directly on the wires into the pipe. If this is not the case, then sealing is going to be doubly critical.
4-for watertight bulkhead penetrations for bundles of wires–essentially what you are trying to do–we’ve had success caulking the opening with copious amounts of sealant–usually silicone–and then cleaning it up carefully to present a smooth surface. After this cures, we wrap the wiring for some distance with self-amalgamating tape until the tape seals around the pipe. Good Luck–Steve Dashew<\/p>\n

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Dear Steve, I have written before and always have received a kind and enlightening response. I recently had our mast …Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-talk","category-rigs-and-rigging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36499,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions\/36499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}