[alberg30] Noise from wires inside mast

[finnus505 at aol.com]

Hey Tom,

I hate the aluminum wind chime effect when at a mooring when you are trying 
to sleep, or just trying to have a quiet moment in the cockpit after a day's 
sail.


My solution was extremely simple.

I went to home depot, and bought 6 lengths of air conditioning insulation 
hose.  The one inch diameter opening, 6 foot lenghts were .99 apiece. 

While my mast was down, and my rewiring job was done, I slipped the 
insulation over the bottom ends of the wires, and simply slid the lengths of 
foam insulation up along the wire, until I hit the spreader attachments 
inside the mast. once all the insulating hose was in place, I re-routed the 
bottoms of the wires from the bottom of the mast to the port that is on the 
side of the mast from which the wires normaly exit the mast

Then, I pulled the top of the wires through the slot for the main halyard 
sheave, and slid more insulation lengths over the masthead wires, and kept 
pushing the insulation down the wires until I reached the spreaders from 
above.. (The sheave assembly  was out because I was replacing the whole 
assembly-sheave, retaining plates, the bolt that holds the sheave in, and 
doubles to hold the upper shrouds, and the compression tube that slides over 
the bolt, Even if you are not replacing any of the mast sheave parts, you 
should be able to remove it at any time if it needs repair, etc.  Most likely 
the nuts that keep the bolt in placee are seized.  It would be easier to 
break them open and take everything apart for inspection while the mast is 
down, than to have to go up there on a bosuns chair if there is a problem out 
on the water.

This solution is cheap and easy, and you don't have to drill new holes in the 
mast, which is always something to avoid if you can, and you won't have a 
mast full of dry foam, which would make changing mast wires more difficult. 
The foam might absorb water that comes into the mast through  the main 
halyard sheave, or other openings in the top of the mast, and the moisture 
would be hard to dry out of the foam as the mast is basicaly sealed, no 
ventilaton.  The wet foam sitting against the inside of the mast would 
accelerate any oxidising process that occurs inside the mast.

Hope this helps,
Lee Trachtenberg
Stargazer #255

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