You should be able to fish a stiff wire through the entire mast. The wire compartment is separate & mostly clear. You may have to wiggle around the motor light wires but it should be doable.

Stay Well,
Stephen Staum
s/v Pinafore
Needham, MA

On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 3:59 PM peter beckerman via Rhodes22-list <
rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org> wrote:

>  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 ]
> >
> > -------------- next part --------------
> > A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
> > Name: IMG_1396.jpeg
> > Type: image/jpeg
> > Size: 3266206 bytes
> > Desc: not available
> > URL: <
> http://rhodes22.org/pipermail/rhodes22-list/attachments/20250510/e1f50b42/attachment.jpeg
> >
> > -------------- next part --------------
> > A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
> > Name: IMG_1397.jpeg
> > Type: image/jpeg
> > Size: 2341074 bytes
> > Desc: not available
> > URL: <
> http://rhodes22.org/pipermail/rhodes22-list/attachments/20250510/e1f50b42/attachment-0001.jpeg
> >
>
>