• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Running wires in the stern rail

ddoles

Member III
Has anyone tried to run wires for electronics through the horizontal members of the stern rail? I'm planning to install an external GPS antenna for a soon to be installed AIS. My thought was to mount the GPS on either the upper or lower stern rail. This would mean running a wire from inside the lazarette up into the stern railing, similar to the stern light wiring. However, the horizontal members do not terminate at the deck. I'm not sure if it is possible to run wires internally through the joints where the vertical and horizontal members are welded. Another option would be to run the wire up inside a vertical member and exit the wire and then have an external wire run for bit, but this is not elegant.

Would appreciate any advice.

Thanks,
Dave
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
The E-38-200, just down the dock from me has a stern pole for his radar antenna, and same as our boat, that pole provides a great place for other sensors and antennas.
Something to consider....
 

ddoles

Member III
Loren,
Yes, good point. I'm planning to mount my radar on a gimballed backstay mount. I can mount the GPS antenna there as well. It just becomes a long wire run which creates other complications. But that may be the way to go.
Dave
 

markvone

Sustaining Member
Hi Dave,

I have my LED stern light mounted on an extension of my stern rail that holds a solar panel. I didn't run the light wiring up through the stern rail tubing because I already had a watertight cable fitting next to the stern rail vertical and my extension is clamped to the existing stern rail so the cable would still need to come out of the vertical, go outside of the clamp and then go back inside the extension tubing (either the angled up support or the horizontal in the picture) requiring more holes in the tubing. The LED light is the black cylinder in the picture and it has a black cable that is not yet tie wrapped to the tubing.

You could certainly run the wiring from inside the boat through the typical stern rail bases and vertical tubing as long as you have access to the area below the rail base inside the boat to feed the wiring. The pushpit is built from welded tubing so there is access inside for the wiring. Wiring should run through bends but I'm not sure through the welded joints. The rail bases allow access to the boat from the tubing or they can be drilled.

Don't forget to account for the size of the connectors which are always larger in diameter than the wire itself and the wire hole in the tubing. Often you can cut them off and redo them after the wire is pulled through. Some connectors aren't supposed to be cut off, so check that and you need to be confident in your ability to re-connect.

Mark
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2682.jpg
    IMG_2682.jpg
    109 KB · Views: 88
Last edited:

Parrothead

Member III
Has anyone tried to run wires for electronics through the horizontal members of the stern rail? I'm not sure if it is possible to run wires internally through the joints where the vertical and horizontal members are welded
There is no passage to the pieces joined by the welds. There is clear passage through the tube it's welded to however. For most rail assemblies this means wiring can be fished through the end verticals to the top rails via the bends.
 

ddoles

Member III
Thanks, that's what I thought, the welded joints are not passable. I'll have to learn to live with some exposed wires, and protect them well.
 
Top