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Mast inspection cover

flycavalry

Junior Member
I am considering installing an electrical access plate sold from rigrite to gain access to my wiring just above my mast step on my 30+. The reason for this is because I am not getting power to my foredeck light. I have power to the light inside the boat prior to exiting to the mast step. I am trying to avoid taking down my mast with all the costs and time involved. Has anyone else installed such an inspection cover? It is not a large cover so it needs to be installed where the wires would be best accessed. Would this degrade the integrity of the mast?
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Afrakes

Sustaining Member
Doing this will not cause any structural problems for your mast. It also may not give you enough room to do anything. How old is the mast wiring?
 

flycavalry

Junior Member
Doing this will not cause any structural problems for your mast. It also may not give you enough room to do anything. How old is the mast wiring?
I can only guess that it is as old as the boat, 1984? The mast data plate from Kanion does look like it was made in 1987, so mayne a gew years newer?
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
My steaming light and foredeck light are an integrated unit with a 3-wire bundle.

1. A shared common/ground wire
2. Positive to steaming light
3. Positive to foredeck light

My take would be, long before you cut a hole in your mast:

Have you gone up in a bosun's chair to look at the fixture(s)?
Is the bulb burned out?
Do you have old wires with bad connections?

I presume you have tested these things.

(I have never had the need to use a foredeck light, but I am a beginner...)
 

KS Dave

Dastardly Villain
Blogs Author
Resurrecting an old thread, here, as I'm seriously considering this. I've done all three things on Tom's list and still haven't found the problem. Worse, I think water is getting in through the hole at the base. I'm considering an alternative pass-thru point I can access more easily to seal that hole up. Dropping the mast is a bigger deal than I previously thought.

I see the tell-tale rivets indicating there is a conduit running up the mast.

Anyone with a deck-stepped mast able to confirm whether port vs. starboard makes a different for where I'd cut this access?

Would a Dremel with a metal cutting blade do the job, here?
 
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