Thu 29 Apr, HHN day 16: Focus on the mast today. Installing a new wind transducer cable, installing helical inserts, and attacking projects on the top and bottom end of the mast. It felt like each job ended due to needing some item or material to be able to finish it. This led to on-line shopping at MacMasterCarr and Amazon.
It is another warm day. Sweltering in fact. So I keep out of the sun on the aft deck for a while, figuring out how to install the helical inserts which arrived yesterday. These small stainless-steel coils are placed in holes on aluminum parts that will have a stainless-steel bolt in them. The backing plates to the goose-neck and vang fittings are such instances. The helical inserts allow the stainless-steel bolts to be in contact with stainless steel coils. This means that the bolts do not get locked in place by dissimilar-metal corrosion effects. Of course, the helical inserts do get corroded in, but they don’t matter. All that matters is being able to remove the bolts, when required.
First, I finish pulling out all the old helical inserts. Then run a thread tap to get the corrosion out. Then install new inserts with a special tool. I only install one. Just to test. I want to paint these aluminum plates with Zinc Chromate before I install the rest and that paint does not arrive until Friday.
Aft deck, under the tent, is unbearably hot by 11am, so I head outside to the mast. I am very glad I had it covered during the winter. The white plastic is really sooty black, but the mast underneath is perfectly clean.
First job is to install a new wind transducer cable and masthead fitting. The old one is still working OK, but the electrical pins in the masthead fitting are very green and corroded. I will clean them up and keep as a backup. But best to re-new it while the mast is down. While pulling the old cable out, I also lead-in a thin lead-line, at the same time. Then use this lead line to pull in the new cable. It all sounds easy, but you really need 2 people for this job, one at each end of the mast. Needless to say, I walk the 80ft from mast head to mast foot and back quite a few times – as recorded by my mumblings and groaning on the video! But eventually, the new cable is installed OK. At this point, the job should be counted as done. But this is a classic case of one-thing-leads-to-another.
First, at the mast foot, the 2 plastic conduits that house all the cabling up the mast are too long and the cables have wrenched themselves out the sides of the conduit, where they get jammed. The conduit needs to be cut back higher to allow the cables free movement. It would be so easy to reduce the length if only the conduit would slide out, but it won’t budge. And getting my hand inside the mast with a cutter and only cutting the conduit and not the cables or myself, takes time and patience. But eventually, I get it done and the cables can move freely at last. The way it was, it would have been impossible to pull or remove a cable in the mast – they just get jammed in the slit in the conduit. And their outer casings were getting damaged too.
Next, to the mast head. 2-3 years ago I had renewed the Lopo light (navigation tri-colour, plus anchor light, plus strobe). It was a job 80ft up the mast with all my soldering gear, heat shrink etc. At the time I remember thinking …. hope that lasts OK. Well, it did. But I decide to now cut the connection and resolder it. Much easier to do a quality job with the mast down. As it happens, I’m proud to say, the soldering and heat shrinking were still perfect!
I also want to add a UV protective cover over all the exposed cables on the mast. From new, it had been this way. But gradually all these coverings have disintegrated over Cloudy Bay’s 12-year life, in places with intense sunlight. So no soldering today because I don’t have that tubing. It will now be ordered from MacMasterCarr and be here tomorrow.
While pondering at the mast top, I notice the lugs that the mast head locks into are not positioned where they should be to take the force. Short story is that the stainless plates in the mast have caused corrosion, which in turn has pushed the backing plates out of place. Amazing the force that Aluminum corrosion can apply as it expands. So, I decide to bite-the-bullet and drill them out, clean them up and re-rivet them back in place correctly. In fact, I end up drilling off ALL the fittings on the mast top, then cleaning them. It’s going to look like new when I rivet them all back together again. I am going to need A LOT of rivets!
By mid-afternoon, the heat had really been getting to me. I felt completely drained or energy, so I decided to take an after-lunch nap at 3pm and see what effect that had on my evening. Good news is that I woke up 40 mins later fresh as a daisy, and my energy continued late into the evening. I might be doing a bit more afternoon napping I think! Does that make me a lazy person? Or a practical one? Readers can decide.
