[Rhodes22-list] What’s this little thing on top of my mast?

[peter beckerman]

 Wow, Roger “doomed from the beginning “. Thanks for the encouragement.  
  You are correct in assuming an in mast furler.
That plate could cover some kind of bearing, but it’s off center so I’m thinking maybe not.  If I understand the furler mechanism, the sail screws into a metal tube ( on mine which is different than some) which sits on a plastic (Teflon?) base with a plastic “doughnut “ bushing at the top of the mast.The IMF mast extrusion is divided into two compartments.  The aft compartment houses the
Furler and sail, the forward compartment acts as a conduit for wiring to the top of the mast.  I was hoping to remove the plate at the top of the mastAnd mount the anchor light on that.     Hopefully someone with an IMF mast can chime in and illuminate the situation.   Seriously though, thanks for the reply.  I really appreciate all of your insights and advice.  I don’t know what I’d do without you and all the folks on the forum who have helped me so much.
Sincerely,    Peter
    On Sunday, May 11, 2025 at 08:58:27 AM EDT, ROGER PIHLAJA <roger_pihlaja at msn.com> wrote:  
 
 Peter,

I am assuming you have the IMF mainsail, yes?
I’ve never had one apart; but, I would expect there will be some mechanism and bearings under that plate associated with the IMF.  Is there any empty conduit inside an IMF mast to route wires & coax cable?  If there isn’t some sort of built in conduit inside the mast; then, this project is doomed before you even begin.  So, I would check the butt of the mast to see if there’s a conduit built in to the aluminum extrusion before doing anything at the masthead.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
1978. Sanford, MI

> On May 10, 2025, at 11:52 PM, peter beckerman via Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>  I’m looking to add an antenna and an anchor light to the top of my mast. There’s a plate riveted to the mast top, and what looks like a little access hatch held on by three screws.  On mine two of the screws are rusted shut.  My question is:  what is this cover?  Can I just drill out the rivets holding the mast top plate and remove that along with the little cover?
>
> Thanks so much for your help
>
> Peter
>
> [ Sent From rhodes22.net ]
>
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