MacGregorSailors.com

Thanks, Tom.

Hi well i cant help you with the mast issue my M came with the radio antena instaled at the top of the mast,it was done at the dealers.

The tanks on my were loose when i bought the boat. The first time the boat heeled out came the tank onto my heel, was not funny as i was trying to get my sheets of the floor.
After some head scratching i decided to buy two 8'' L shaped brackets and instaled them under the seat covers, so that the long arm of the L fits snugggly againts the tank when the seat is down and it raise up out of the way when i raise the seat to take the tank out for refueling. Works great, now a non issue. Why the seat, still just a bit nervous about drilling anything in the cockpit area.

Sailing you got love it.

Rich wrote:
"

One more question. I noticed that you had and then replaced the tan cockpit cushions that you can get from MacGregor as an option with some blue ones. I was looking at ordering the optional cockpit cushins from Mac. Did you not like them for some reason? Or did you jsut want the Blue ones instead? "

Although we have the factory tan cushions we bought a rectangular seat cushion for the helm seat from the dealer made by Bottom Siders. It is thinner than the stock cushions, but with denser foam and cleans easily with a sponge. It is very comfortable and very high quality. According to the dealer Bottom Siders will make custom cushions to any shape and a large assortment of colors. If you don't like the stock cushions I would at least check out Bottom Siders. We are planning to get the railing cushions for the raised aft seats we had installed. The seats are really neat, but the railing in the back could use some cushion.

I did it!
I ran 30' of 3/4" dia pvc pipe throgh the mast and now I can run a mast- lite wire as well as coax for a future anntena.
A #5 sledge and elbow grease did it.

hull 36

Steve,

If you wern't in Florida across the country, I would bring my 2004 26M to your house to help me. I am nervous about taking on that task all by myself.

Are there any hints or tips that you could offer? Are there components I can damage or destroy?

Thanks for the tips.

Richard,
No big problems at all. Just some paitiens.
Here is what you need:
Three length of 3/4" dia sched 40 pvc pipe Two 3/4" couplings some pvc pipe cement. All for about $16.00 at Home Depot.
Take off all the hardware from the mast (only the through bolts)
Get yourself a small sledge hammer and start pounding one length at a time. once the pipe is sticking out three or so inches, glue on the next length and so on.
I placed the mast on two lawn chairs. Use an electrician,s snake to fish the wire through.
Hope this helps.
Steve

Steve,
Did you sharpen the first length of PVC?? Will you re-foam after installing the wires?

I did not have to sharpen the pipe. It went in pretty easy most of the way.
The foam remained intact. No need to re-foam.

Steve:
How did you get the foam out of the inside of the PVC pipe? Do you think a smaller diameter pipe, say 1/2 inch would be strong enough to allow driving with a sledge?
Thanks,

If I were to redo it, I would have gone to a larger size pipe (1+"). The RG-8U wire and 14 gauge light wire take up a whole lot of space. I don't think I could fit anything else in the 3/4" pvc pipe the dealer installed. Of course if you use smaller wire, it should be fine.

So glad I had the dealer do it.

Paul

I did not see any foam in the pipe
Don't know where it went? Guess it just spread to the sides.
I think that 3/4" pipe is more than enough. In a run of less than 100' you do not need heavy coax for the radio. (learned this in ham radio school...WA2ORU)
I also changed the connector to a four pronged one, so that the two lights will work of off different switches. Just more bells and wistles

Steve

I used a 4 prong adapter too.

I have an anchor light, running light, and a foredeck light.





I know RG8U is probably overkill, but that is what I wanted. Now one of these days I need to hook up these lights

Here are all the pics of the mast wiring install on our boat


Paul

Wow, you used 14/2 for the anchor light. You could run about 35 anchor lights off that wire!

Here is the next question.

Once you get the antenna wire up the mast and the anchor light wire, how do they best exit the mast and connect? I assume the existing anchor light on top of the deck?

Thanks for the tips.

Rich

Dimitri-2000X-Tampa wrote:Wow, you used 14/2 for the anchor light. You could run about 35 anchor lights off that wire!

As far as I can tell..it is the proper gauge for that length run. I am sure no harm would be done using 16 or 18.

Paul