Internal mast wiring?

[Menic]

I'd like to add an anchor light to my DS2. I have the mast step and top off for some other maintenance and thought I would run a cable internally, but there seems to be a block of some sort where the upper end of the stays connect. Am I wrong? I'd love to run them inside the mast

Has anyone rigged a anchor light and if so, how did you route the cables?
Thanks!

[GreenLake]

It's been my understanding that the mast should be sealed to give it some buoyancy. It may not be much but not allowing water into it during a capsize would be the goal. You would seal top and bottom and where there are fasteners that might cause leaks. That would be one logical reason to have a plug at the spreader location.

Now, there are some boats that have mast with internal halyards. For those this approach wouldn't work.

Have you considered alternatives that don't require wires?

With LED lights, charging with an integral small solar cell is feasible. You can have it activated at night and if you don't sail at night you can mount it at the mast top and forget. I don't keep my boat at a mooring, but if I wanted to go on a trip with overnight anchoring, I'd hoist such a lamp into the rigging as needed. Not permanently installed. I do sail at night, once or twice each season and in the early evening more often than that, so I couldn't use anything that I couldn't turn off.

I also have strong opinions regarding any added weight aloft. The DS isn't a keelboat. One pound at the end of a 20' lever would take 7 pounds at the rail to balance at a 45° heeling angle. Less at smaller angles of heel, of course, but in the worst case, if you are barely preventing the boat from going over, you really don't want things stacked against you.

Everyone has their own criteria for optimizing and their own trade-offs and compromises. If a permanently installed light with cable is optimal for your use case, the only thing I can suggest is to use a stiff wire to see if the block is made from some material like foam, that could be punched through. Even then it is not obvious to me how you get your wire started. If you solve it, let us know.

[RaleighRancher]

I’ve toyed with adding permanent nav lights to mine and came down to portable LEDs (like these https://www.westmarine.com/seavolt-led-navigation-light-combo-portable-clamp-on-battery-operated-20926663.html).

The additional effort and expense is just not worth it for the few times that I’ll actually have the boat out after dark, sailing or anchored. Your ambitions may differ.

There’s also the question of whether you need an anchor light at all. In my home state of North Carolina, it’s not required for vessels under 23 feet unless anchored near a channel in other trafficked area. I think our regs are pretty typical. See https://www.ncwildlife.gov/inland-light ... espdf/open

The regs also do not require the white LED to be a masthead LED; a stern light is sufficient for vessels under 23 feet. If you really wanted a masthead light while anchored (maybe you’re going to sleep aboard and don’t want the anchor light at eye level all night?) you could simply hoist your stern light on one of your halyards. The stern light is affixed to a pole that clamps to the stern; the pole should provide a counterweight to keep the light vertical.

[GreenLake]

I like this set of nav lights. They are originally intended for inflatables. They also have a white all around on a pole: https://www.fisheriessupply.com/innovative-lighting-led-battery-operated-stern-navigation-light-pole-mount/560-2113-7. Using lithium AA batteries instead of alkaline should have plenty of runtime, if you want to hoist it overnight into the rigging.

Instead of a clamp, they come with a suction cap - which won't work on old, rough gelcoat. So I made a small adapter that takes a bolt (not shown) to match the one from the cup. The adapter can be secured to the bow, hooking over the stemhead fitting below the forestay.



BTW: the pole mounted one doesn't work well when I'm motoring because I don't have center sheeting. Instead, I suspend one from the end of the boom.