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Leaks, Wires, and other tales of woe

Posted: Wed October 10th, 2007, 4:49 pm
by MB63
My wife and I have just bought "Lady of Lockerley", a GH26 which we are keeping on the Hamble.

We haven't really had a chance to try her out properly since the purchase, but I have two initial problems.

The first is a leak that emerges in the cabin just aft of the back of the chart table. It looks like it ought to be coming in from the coach house and side deck to cockpit level deck seam, but generous amounts of sikaflex are making no difference. Is this a recognised problem, and if so, what's the solution? Is it much worse than I dare hope, in that I may have to take up the teak and the ply beneath?

The second question is more general. Can wiring inside a mast be successfully replaced with the mast in place? As the mast was being put on, something in the wiring has given up the ghost, as has the masthead light. I also need to replace the wind transducer, and would prefer to run new wire. Can it be done? Or should I just become resigned to the idea of living without these things until the next time the mast is unstepped?

Posted: Thu November 1st, 2007, 10:31 pm
by Fiddler's Green
Hello Martin,

dificult problem... I have just renewed the wiring on my daughter's mast, that was tricky enough with it on the back lawn..

I used the old defective wire and securely fastened a thin cord to it, then pulled it carefully through. Now to do that would mean a trip aloft in a bosuns chair, with a co worker gently manipulating the other end of the cord. Then you can fasten on the new wire, (wires) and very very carefully pull them through.

On the ground I have also resorted to using sewer rods, (very clean ones!) and securing a loop of thin wire to the first section. I then fished through the hole in the side of the mast at the top caught the loop and tied a cord to that to pull it down. I now have both wires and all the internal halyards ether back in place, only in the case of the internal halyards, have thin 'messenger' lines in place to I can replace the new clean halyards in spring.

Took a lot of fiddling, as it was a very small section mast with little internal space, but we got there eventually.

how long can you sit at the top of a mast though? There must be an entry in the Guiness book of .....

hope this helps,
John