CS34 Mast Wiring

Launch at the Whitby Yacht Club was Covid 19 delayed a full month until June 4th.
I had the mast up on Still Time the day after launch, the fastest I have ever put it up!

However, all the wiring in the mast:

• anchor light
• steaming light
• deck light

...did not work at all.

I tried troubleshooting it from below to no avail.

For our cruise east this year, we need a working anchor light, so I had to take the mast down to fix it.

Walter and Steve helped me take the jib off and the main at the dock:

We removed the boom and placed in on the deck:

Then motored over to the mast crane:

Had to take the sails and boom off because your couldn't safely lift the mast with them on.

We rigged up a lifting line between the lower/upper spreaders.
The line is securely connected to the gooseneck taking the weight.
The loop around the mast between the spreaders keeps the mast vertical.
This line connects to the crane above the center of mass of the mast so it is easy to lift it:

Note how I back the boat to the crane.  This keeps the crane away from the expen$ive wind instrument.

Not a problem with the lower water levels this year.

Steve worked the crane:

We had the crane take some weight, and disconnected the shrouds/forestay/backstay.
We then lifted the mast perhaps 6" and move it to the side to expose the rat's nest.

I was below troubleshooting the 3 ciruits with Walter and JP troubleshooting on the deck. 

There are four connections under here that get stuff up the mast when it is stepped

• VHF coax cable
• TV coax cable (never used)
• wind instrument (6 conductor trailer connector)
• anchor/steaming/deck lights (4 conductor trailer connector)

These have worked flawlessly for several years.

What we found it that the pins on the 4 conductor trailer connector for the lights were corroded.
You bump the connector and it work, bump it again and it doesn't work.

We used a knife and sandpaper to remove some of the corrosion, and that fixed it.

We put an electrical zip tie on the connector to keep it tightly connected:

Didn't have any dielectric grease and will do that in the off season.

All told it took about a hour to lift the mast and drop it and connect everything.

We got the boom quickly on, and hoisted the mainsail motoring over to my slip, dropping it in the sail bag.  We put the headsail on at the dock.

This is how the wires are terminated inside the boat:

Cleans up real nice:

Still Time mast lights are all better!

UPDATE: the following Sunday I spent several hours attaching the reefing lines and turning the rig.