Up the Mast

May 20, 2022

One of the many projects that we had on our list to do to our sailboat this year, in preparation for hopefully heading to Mexico in the fall, was to go up our mast and install a new wind vane.  This new Raymarine I60 wind vane transducer and accompanying display would communicate with our Raymarine autopilot so that instead of steering to a chosen heading our autopilot could steer to a chosen wind angle.  With appropriate alarms set in case the wind changed directions, and of course with someone on watch, our autopilot could then easily steer our boat under sail.  The wind vane system that was already installed at the top of our mast told us the wind speed, but it would not communicate the wind angle to our autopilot.  So, on one sunny, crisp, but calm day in May we made this our project. 

Because I am lighter and Jason is stronger he winched me up to the top of the mast such that with one of us at the top, and the other at the bottom, our work could begin.  First, the old wind vane was removed, and then with a string firmly attached to the end of the wire at the bottom of the mast inside the boat to serve as a fish line, I slowly began to pull the wire up and out at the top of the mast while Jason fed the string into the hole at the bottom.  When the wire got stuck on something inside the mast, Jason would pull back down from the bottom and then I would try to pull it up once again.  At last I came to the end of the wire and the start of the string -- step one was a success.  With three rope halyards and multiple sets of wires running inside our mast there were lots of things to potentially get hung up on and we were a little worried that we may have some complications in order to successfully run the new wire.  

I dry fit the new wind vane transducer and then lowered it in a bag, along with the aluminum base, down to Jason.  He then drilled the base to fit the mount and attached it with machine screws before sending it back up to me.  With the aluminum base once again secured to the top of the mast it was time to try running our new wire.  I attached the string fish to the wire well back from the end of the wire and taped the string along the wire so as to spread out the pulling load and also to taper the join so as to hopefully avoid any hang ups.  We began, slowly but surely with Jason pulling from inside our boat at the base of our mast and me lowering the line while also trying to maintain some tension.  Bit by bit we made progress.  

Several times we got hung up on something unknown inside the mast.  When Jason could no longer pull any more string, I would pull the wire back up towards me and then once we were free we would try again.  There were a few times when we got quite stuck and we both silently worried, but each time we managed to work it free.  Then I got the call up from Jason that he had the start of the wire, yay!!!  What a relief.  And then, snap, the end of the wire just back from where I had joined it to the string broke, and Jason was left with the string and the end of the wire in his hands.  “Oh No!”  

This was pretty much a worst-case scenario.  We had lost our fish, and the wire was somewhere inside the mast.  We knew that it had been at the bottom, but it would not have been surprising if it had jumped upwards when it broke, obviously it was under more tension than we had realized.  The access holes into our mast at the bottom are about 1/2 inch in diameter and there are only three of them.   

I had been up the mast for quite some time, and I had to pee, so Jason lowered me down and we took a break.  When we went back to work, unsure of how we would proceed, we lay down on our sides at the base of the mast with flashlights in hand, and looked.  Suddenly we saw it, there it was!  The end of the wire was still hanging down and by the looks of it it was right beside a hole.  Looking through an assortment of small dental tools we found one with the perfect hook and managed to snag the wire and delicately pull the end out of the hole.  We had it!   

Feeling very relieved, Jason winched me back up the mast.  I then fed down the remaining length of the wire and closed up the hole before coming back down the mast.  We finished running the wire from the base of the mast, under the floor, and into the engine room, and then up to the back of the hole where the wind vane display was to be mounted in the cockpit.  We then removed the old display, drilled the hole bigger to accommodate the new display, and got the new unit completely mounted and connected.  Success!