[ Home Page ]    [ History ]    [ The Project ]

Project Log:  Saturday, June 28 2014

After a break of a few weeks, I continued work on the masts, this time with the mizzen mast.  When I left off, I'd still been working on wiring on the mainmast, and had intended to get to the VHF antenna wire required for the mizzen in short order, but this was the first chance I'd had to get back to it.

The second  VHF antenna was dedicated to the AIS system, and was the main means of that system's communication of the ship's position and other data.  Earlier, I'd led a cable from the AIS unit beneath the pilothouse dash and up through the overhead to the aft end of the pilothouse, where it'd eventually connect with the cable leading to the mast and antenna.

There were already holes in the mast for the cable, one about five or so feet above the mast base, coinciding with the intended height of the cable exit from the pilothouse; additionally, the original wiring hole was still in place near the top of the mast.  To begin, I ran my snake from the lower hole to the upper, a process that didn't take too long.  There was no internal conduit in this mast.

    

Connecting a length of coaxial cable to the end, I next pulled the wire through, leaving ample excess at the lower end.


Above the masthead exit, I installed a bracket for a basic wire whip antenna, using Tef-Gel on the tapped fasteners and all that jazz before installing a connector on the wire end and making the connections.  I'd have to look for a rubber grommet for that wiring hole.  For the moment, I bundled up the excess cable at the lower end and left it be pending final hookup when the mast was stepped.


On the mainmast, I installed a second bracket, this one for the main VHF radio antenna.  This cable, which I'd run earlier, led down from the very top of the mast to the base of the antenna unit.

    

With the heat of the day and an appointment around mid-day, I didn't get back to the mast project before day's end.  Meanwhile, the boat waited (im)patiently in the shop, causing me guilt and angst with each passage nearby as I went about my daily work and business.  That's my poor old 1994 John Deere GT262 in front, another eventual restoration project (though more of an stabilization and operational/structural job rather than cosmetic).

 

Total Time Today:  2 hours

< Previous | Next >


The Motorsailer Project
Site design and content ©2010-2015 by Timothy C. Lackey.  All rights reserved.

Please notify me of broken or missing links or other site issues.
You can always find every day's project log links on The Project page.

Questions and comments | Home Page
V1.0 went live on 8/26/10