35-3 Bow Pulpit removal- winter project

[RCsailfast]

I need to pull the bow pulpit off this winter to replace the nav light wires.

They are dry rotted and tried pulling in new ones but they are stuck in the tubing. Had butt spliced and extended a wire as a temp repair but the other broke and can’t retrieve it. Had to use the back up battery powered clamp on nav light during a recent night sail, and will be fine with those until she gets pulled. Thankfully the lost wire isn’t shorting out.

Has anyone successfully pulled the bow pulpit without removing the bases from the deck?
I know from crawling part way into v-berth forward access door that the bases are through bolted and impossible to get to as is.
The pulpit tubes each have a screw holding them in the base. Hopefully removing the screws and some spirited mallet tapping can pop them out without disturbing the bases.

 

[Loren Beach]

From looking at a sister ship on line, our model seems to have the same system of inserting the angled leg(s) into angled bases. I have found that the whole pulpit needs to move forward as it's lifted and it does take some patience. Our running light wiring came down thru the starb. leg, and thru a drilled hole in the center of the base and down into the area under our anchor locker. Unlike your boat our model has a smaller anchor locker and I can (barely) reach up and work with the wiring pigtails, from beneath.
If I had your model, I would try to cut in an access plate for one or both sides of the well just for times like this, but then giving advice from across the internet is easy... but not always helpful.
Good luck!

 

[RCsailfast]

Thanks for the armchair advise Loren

Your thoughts about the angled tubes and pushing forward while lifting was what I was thinking. I know they aren’t all at the same angle, just hope there is enough flex to remove and reinstall them.

The v-berth access door gives “some” access under the anchor chain pan. The wires come out the aft tube on the port side and are spliced before disappearing into the head. I tried to use a wire as a messenger for new wires pulling them for the pulpit back. They got jammed and wouldn’t pull in either direction. All I can figure is the wires taped together and get jammed where they pass through the deck. I‘ve pulled countless spools of wire in my life and tried every trick before giving up.

 

[Hagar2sail]

Our 35-3 has the wires in the fwd port leg. You do have to pull forward and up after removing all the set screws. A lot of juggling and struggling is required. We had our anchor pan out at the time which helped a lot.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

Our first year we had to remove the bow pulpit to repair a bend put in by the PO. I was able to do it without removing the anchor tub. As I recall, I wiggled halfway through the v-berth access hatch (several times) to get at things. I'm 5'9", pushing 190, and was 66 at the time. It required a lot of straining, swearing, and remedial acetaminophen. I often wished for longer arms and a couple u-joint elbows. While we were at it we replaced the bow light with an LED unit. At some point I'll remove the anchor tub and bow hardware, pot all the holes, and rebed. At some point.
Jeff

 

[G Kiba]

Wires through the starboard leg of the pulpit on my boat as well. The wires were captive with a solid plug of silicone about 2" in length and a few inches deep in the starboard leg. It took me over an hour to remove it with various poking and cutting tools.