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I had a long weekend this past weekend and foolishly thought that I could:
- Install my nav lights
- Fix up the tabernacle where my mast hoops get hung up
- Fix up my rudder/tiller.

Saturday it rained.
Sunday was spent on the lawn - and trying to repair my ancient and now dead lawn mower
Monday I got the nav lights installed.  What was supposed to be only an hour or so turned into much of the day.  I had installed small plastic pipes inside the mast and through the stem with strings in them so that I could easily fish the wires.  This worked pretty good on the mast, but when I tried to do the bow light the string separated from the wire.  I ended up having to cut out a bunch of the foam board that I had installed in the forepeak so that I could reach the exit of the pipe to fish another wire - several hours and much frustration.

I do have a problem still though - On the tabernacle, I hollowed out the bottom of the mast and left a section of pipe sticking out of the stub.  That way, when lifting the mast, the pipe on the stub would slide up into the mast keeping the wiring from jamming.  Unfortunately time and UV has deteriorated that little piece of plastic pipe and it broke into pieces.  Any thoughts on what I can do to keep the wiring from getting jammed into the tabernacle when I hoist the mast?

On occasions like this Andrew, I find the simplest of things are what works best, so I'd look at my scrap pieces of fuel and water hose. I have a pile of old and new cut off's from hose installations. I commonly use them as chafe protection as wires pass through something, but this sounds like another good application for a piece of 1/4" fuel line.

Andrew, try turning the hinges over, you will need to remove a small amount of wood to accomodate the reversed hinge and countersink for the screws. This is how I did it and the hoops don't hang up on the hinge. ;D

Yeah, I think we run the "loops" of the hinge (where the pin lives) facing inwards to help cut down on things to grab the hoops.

Mike

That's an old picture - I found that hinge to be too weak and replaced it with another, much stronger one that is turned around the way it needs to be.  One of the straps on the gate hinge on the aft side sticks out about a 1/8" and catches the hoops.  It's bolted on and cannot be moved so I'll need to grind it down.

Does anyone know if I could put a grinding wheel on my electric drill for such a little job?  Otherwise it's going to be a long afternoon with a file.

Yep, you can use a grinder disk on a drill. The two basic problems will be an arbor that keeps it centered and drill speed. You may have control issues, so if your drill has a side handle, install it.

Andrew

You can pick up a cheap angle grinder for under $20.  The aggravation it saves you trying to do it with your drill will be worth the $20.  Also, once you have the angle grinder you will be surprised how many uses you will find for it.

A word of caution...be mindful of where the sparks are flying.  I was cutting re-bar with my agle grinder and all the sparks were flying at the crotch of my coveralls, I thought I smelled something burning but paid it no heed... till the flames were large enough to come into my line of sight.  I beat the flames out without causing any bruising except to my ego. I wouldn't have been so bad if my wife and oldest son hadn't witnessed the whole event.  Now anytime they see me with the angle grinder in my hands they snicker and ask if I'm BBQing brats.

Ken

Your hair can catch fire really easy too. I'm still in therapy over that particular event . . .

Maybe that explains why Willie Nelson cut his ....