Routing water from mast to bilge?

One caution about totally wrapping that spreader end: moisture and salt will find a way inside over time. The resulting corrosion will be a problem because there are dissimilar metals bound together there, getting intimate, in the dark...........
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Loren

Loren Beach said:

moisture and salt will find a way inside over time

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100% correct.

I have two approaches that may (?) help with this.

One, I remediated the existing corrosion at the spreader tips, put on two coats of paint, and then when putting the rig together I coated the tip-pockets (and the monel seizing wire) with TefGel. That "should" help keep the dissimilar metals from getting too intimate.

Two, spreader-tip inspection has a high place on my annual/spring to-do list. Right up there with inspecting halyards, standing rigging, partners/mast-boot, etc. So by this time next year, those boots will have been pulled off and reinstalled. I don't like to "not know" what's going on with the things that keep the mast upright...

bgary said:

Anecdotally, I'm told that water that finds its way into the mast tends to dribble out the bottom and onto the sole, "eventually" finding its way to the bilge.

Has anyone found a way to route that water directly into the bilge?

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Spent all day Friday and Saturday on the boat, working on inside-stuff while it rained outside. Saw a fair amount of water pooling around the mast step and working its way under the floorboard to the bilge. And after thinking through a bunch of options, I think the most sensible one is to just pull the floorboard up and out of the way when I leave the boat during rainy-season (**)

Takes less than a minute to do. Water has unimpeded path to the bilge. Floorboard doesn't get wet, top or bottom. Good enough for today..

(**) there are basically two seasons up here: "rainy season" and "August".

My very low-tech $0.02 solution ... cheap window/door insulation tape collects the seeping water into the sump.
This has worked well and kept my sole dry for years now.