Deck step mast base plate

[whiteswan]

Advice wanted,
i have a 2015 Jeanneau 41DS and have recently noticed water ingress running down from the cables from the US spars mast.
The design of the deck step mast base plate includes a vertical cast pipe in which the cables run from the mast into the salon.
Has anyone found a solution to this water ingress problem?

[Spritz]

hallo
i had similar problem on my 2011 42DS. in my case they did a horrible job injecting from the saloon, some silicon paste. i strongly suggest not to follow this approach.

you have two coices:

1) from the saloon you can try to identify from when the water comes in

2) extract wires from the mast and use a "pipe" to let wires pass.

hope is useful  

[Mistroma]

Feb 20, 2022 14:13:43 GMT whiteswan said:

Advice wanted,
i have a 2015 Jeanneau 41DS and have recently noticed water ingress running down from the cables from the US spars mast.
The design of the deck step mast base plate includes a vertical cast pipe in which the cables run from the mast into the salon.
Has anyone found a solution to this water ingress problem?

My 2009 42DS has a similar arrangement using a plastic pipe that sticks up through the base about 20-30 cm inside the mast. I had lots of water coming in when it was raining. The wires came out of their channels, were bent up above the pipe and then back down again into the pipe. I think that there was enough excess for them to touch the side of the mast well above the pipe. Rain was entering the mast, running down inside until it reached the wires and then diverting down straight through the pipe.

I fixed the problem years ago and haven't had any water coming through since that time. It was a bit fiddly but doable with small hands.

I managed to pull the excess wiring down to make certain it was an uphill route from lowest hanging wires to the pipe entry. I cut the narrow neck off a plastic water bottle and pushed the base down over the end of the pipe. Any water reaching the base of the water bottle simply runs off to the deck. It can't run uphill, even if it pours all over the cables.

I hope that this makes sense but could do a diagram later. I seem to remember a bit of swearing when I was sitting on deck and trying to persuade the bottle to fit over the wires and top of the pipe inside the mast.

It won't solve the problem if the pipe is not well sealed to the deck but that's easy to check. I thought that's where the problem lay on my boat but it was well sealed. I tried dribbling water inside the mast at the base and that confirmed it wasn't leaking. It seems less likely if your base plate has a tube as part of the casting. I'd suggest trying a hose anyway as a check. The trick with a half water bottle is still worth doing after fixing any other leak. I'm assuming the casting is tall enough to hold a bottle.


UPDATE:
I managed to find a diagram of my Selden mast base. It seems to have a casting as well and the hose slides onto that section. Ignore the red circle and coloured wires as the diagram was explaining some other wiring changes. You can see that the wires are looped above the pipe if you click to zoom. Mine had too much excess and touched the side of the mast. I think there was a cable tie and it was a pain to cut. However, that allowed me to pull the cable below the top of the pipe.

[whiteswan]

Thanks Mistroma, l have just seen your reply.
I am convinced it’s running down the cables via the tube in heavy rain. I have a US spar base plate and the tube is relatively short. 
There is also a small loop in the cables prior to entry to the tube. I intend to try and improve the loop in the cables if possible, also considering spraying waterproof expanding foam into the tube!

Not sure how you fitted the plastic bottle, did you cut in half and split?

Tony

[Mistroma]

Mar 2, 2022 8:24:41 GMT whiteswan said:

Thanks Mistroma, l have just seen your reply.
I am convinced it’s running down the cables via the tube in heavy rain. I have a US spar base plate and the tube is relatively short. 
There is also a small loop in the cables prior to entry to the tube. I intend to try and improve the loop in the cables if possible, also considering spraying waterproof expanding foam into the tube!

Not sure how you fitted the plastic bottle, did you cut in half and split?

Tony

It was quite a few years ago and I can't remember exactly how I got it inside. I simply laid the bottle flat and cut through the sides to make a reasonable sided cup. I think that I probably bent the side towards the base and squeezed it into the mast. Either through the slot or the access points on my mast. That's the only thing that makes sense as the slot and access points are both fairly narrow. I remember it was a bit fiddly cutting the cable tie, pulling the wire down to deck level and then pushing the upturned bottle end down over the top of the pipe.

My mast is a Selden model with removable covers on the access points. The upturned bottle completely solved the problem at zero cost. I can't remember the size but would probably have been between 500mls - 1 litre.

I think the casting on my mast is also quite short but it has a decent lenght of pipe pushed over it. I'd expect something similar with your mast. Perhaps the dealer forgot to install it when raising the mast.