Wednesday, July 27, 2011

An Electronics Installation Story Worth Telling (Part-2)

They came back the next day, immediately started pushing the cable down from top, and pulling from the bottom the line that they had put through the day before by disconnecting the streaming and deck light cable and pulling that cable down with a line tied to the end. After quite a few tries they declared, “your conduit is too small” and offered to de-step the mast!!, or alternatively cut open an inspection hole at the foot of the mast!!! To inspect and find out what was wrong.

I would not allow them to cut a hole on my mast and god knows how much ruin the integrity of the aluminum mast. I would not spend two more weeks and thousands of dollars to take the mast off either. I suggested dropping the line through the mast outside the conduit. Their response was; “That is not something we do. We need the approval of the office, which will probably want to talk to you about the consequences etc.” Then they said we will try a bit more.

Then pulling real hard, the cable started to slide down, encouraged, the two stooges pulled even harder on the line, until they dislodged the conduit from where it was fixed inside the mast, and it came all the way down, out the opening inside the salon, where they were pulling. Of course, without the conduit limiting, the cable also came down all the way. Now, they wanted to pull the end, the terminal of the cable that was taped to the end of the line. It would not budge. It was stuck somewhere at the foot of the mast. After inspection and guess work, and to their surprise, they concluded that; the cable had dropped outside the bulkhead, down below the down-comer tube that is at the bottom of the mast and at the top of the stepping support column, which is inside the boat at inside of the bulkhead where the wires come through. The two-technician crew obviously had no idea about the construction of the mast stepping and the wiring systems of Lagoons. But, happy with their “accomplishments!”, they said “we will drill a hole through the bulkhead tomorrow and bring the cable through a sealed system.” That afternoon they continued to install the bracket and then the antenna on the mast.

The saga continues!!. Look for new blog updates.






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