Re: Stus-List Mast Wire Question

[Bill via CnC-List]

I'm guessing it's probably for a lightning rod. mine's got a whopping wire going up in it, and a great big copper pointy stick. Maybe the thinking is that it would carry the juice down The wire and into the keel & out, rather than frying all of the instruments and everything else. But I don't profess to know all of this electrical stuff much less lightning strikes, but apparently somebody thought it was worth while, so I left it there.

Bill

On Mar 11, 2019 2:44 PM, Josh Muckley via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:

I bet the PO had a "great" idea to put a wind generator on the masthead.  They used the mast as the ground and the red wire as power.  It explains the color, the gauge, and the length of both of the tail ends.

Josh Muckley

S/V Sea Hawk 

1989 C&C 37+

Solomons, MD 

On Sun, Mar 10, 2019, 11:15 PM Steven A. Demore via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:

I have the mast of my C&C 30 MK1 down for rebuild right now.  Just replaced the wiring and found a cable I’m not sure about.  It is a heavy gauge stranded single conductor wire, maybe 1/8 or 3/16, with a thick red insulation on it.  If I had to guess, a heavy ground wire.  There is about 20 feet of cable coiled at the base of the mast and it goes all the way to the top of the mast, where it just sticks out 6 or 12 inches.

Did these boats have lightning rods or something originally?  Is there something that a big ground wire would do that a 45 foot hunk of aluminum wouldn’t do?  I’m afraid to ask this one, as it is probably a religious argument, but should the mast (or a lightning rod??) be grounded to a keel bolt or something?  If there is supposed to be a lightning rod, does anybody have a picture of one and how it is mounted?

 

Thanks,
Steve

 

SV Doin’ It Right
1973 C&C 30 MK1
Pasadena, MD

 

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