To All Responders: Thanks for the great response and excellent ideas. I really like the wire tie spider idea, and the PVC idea makes much sense. I think that my foam insulation goes only up to the spreaders, or perhaps only to the steaming light. I have never noticed any clanging of wires in the mast. What is actually up there remains to be seen.
Tony and Ebb: I don’t want to remove my masthead, because I don’t need to do so at this point. I have wires where I want them and I hope to be able to pull them out with pull lines attached. I then hope to pull new coaxial cable up the mast. Were I painting ther mast, I would need to remove all of the fasteners, I suppose, but I don't intend to paint the mast. Most of my stainless steel fasteners look good, but they don’t remove easily. We had to cut the bolt off the tabernacle plate at the mast step.
The only other electric device that I have on the mast is the steaming light. I am replacing that fixture, but again it comes equipped with existing wires. That is a short run and does not concern me quite so much as getting beyond the spreader tube and up to the masthead where the VHF antenna hangs out.
I really do like the PVC idea. The small diameter electrical conduit PVC sells at Orchard Supply hardware for less than $2.00 for a ten-foot section. It is flanged on one end so no connecters are necessary. It should be a piece of cake to shove that stuff with enclosed wires up the mast. That would also allow me to take another set of electrical wires up there if I decide to add a tricolor light or other mast top electrical device. I don’t like the idea of pop riveting the PVC to my mast, which is pristine and without blemish between the steaming light and the main halyard sheave. I have been wondering if it would be possible to add some sort of rubber donuts (perhaps very short sections of closed cell foam pipe insulators) surrounding the PVC every few feet to prevent the PVC from banging against the mast, and then leave it unattached to the mast with the exception of a mastbase attachment point within reach of the bottom of the mast.
I did check around today for soft hose, which might be used instead of the PVC, but all of the hose that I saw was very heavy. The electrical conduit version of PVC pipe is really very light weight.
Bill: I have completely stripped the mast and spreaders to bare aluminum. There never were any spreader lights, at least on this set of spreaders, but the wires that run up that way remain a mystery.
SkipperJer: I was informed today the pipe insulating foam is closed cell and therefore does not absorb water. I would imagine, however that any hollow foam tube open at a seam and also at the top would collect and hold water, even if it is closed cell. The photo below is taken from the mast base. The main halyard track at the back of the mast is to the left of the photo.
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