Mast wiring

I have an '87 Ericson 34. While getting the standing rigging replaced next Spring, I thought I would replace all the wiring. Has anybody done this? If so, any general and/or specific advice or suggestions. I was thinking of enclosing all the wires in 3/4" or 1" PVC pipe, to keep them together and seperate from the halyards. Does that make any sense?
Thanks in advance!!!!

Kenyon

If your mast is a Kenyon then it probably has a conduit in it. Do you see a series of side by side rivet heads every four or five feet along the length of the mast? If so they are securing the conduit.

Al, yes, it is a Kenyon; I don't recall seeing the rivets, but I will check when I get back out there. thanks

When I did a mast-re-wire, the best method I found was to connect a messenger line (1/8 line works well) to every wire that comes out of the mast and make sure they are all long enough to reach the mast base. Then you gently (or violently, depending on your conduits) remove the wiring through the base and you're left with a bunch of line leading to each hole in the mast. In my case there was a conduit up to the spreaders and I would not have found the holes without the lines. This way even if you have partial or multiple paths, each piece will go same way as before.

mast rewire

I just redid my 32. Wanted to add spreader lights and change everything to LED. Found that PO had run some new wires outside of conduit then poured in expanding foam at spreaders and steaming light that got into conduit, Managed to pull old wires then drilled a hole through the foam (bit on 32' of 1"PVC) Added small lights on upper side of spreaders to light mast at night (and put nonskid tape on top of lowers). New masthead tricolor/anchor/strobe is 1/3 the size of old one, twice as bright and doesn't even register on ampmeter(3ma?). Top off with a killer paint job and new standing rigging( running only 3yo) and I'm ready to go !!
P.S. Just realized I don't have any pics loaded on new laptop. Will post them later.

Wire sizing note

One observation about rewiring a mast in these here 'modern times'.....

Unlike when I did ours in '02 and ran wires sized for the older incandescent bulbs (and had a deuce of a time getting the wire thru the conduit) you can nowadays run smaller dia. wiring, like maybe #16 or even smaller.
Our modern LED bulbs draw a fraction of the amps in comparison to those old bulbs.

This will leave more room in that conduit for other things like new coax, which is just as fat as ever, and also slightly reduce weight aloft.

Regards,
Loren

True, but I found myself being paranoid about the hypothetical situation where some future doofus replaces my expensive LED lamp with the cheapest possible old incandescent bulb... they fit in the same socket... :0 In that case, the heavier wire would be needed.

Nah... we'll just ban 'em before that happens!

I use the lowers as a lookout platform a lot, hence the nonskid. Don't know why it keeps turning pics!??!!

Find root photo ("Locate on Disk"), check alignment, save before uploading. Meantime, Sean is making progress on solving the doubled-photo issue.