Mystery Cable

[Clark Trow]

During a recent warm (relatively speaking) spell, I removed all of the floorboards from my boat so I could sand and refinish them.  Under the floorboard on the port side between the settee and the salon table, I found a black electrical cable, one end of which appears to be bolted down to the keel and the other end, with a crimped-on fitting, is attached to nothing.  Photos are attached (all the black stuff is engine insulation which disintegrated before I bought the boat and made its way into pretty much every crevice in the bilge).  Does anyone have any clue what the cable is for?  When I bought the boat, it had non-working radar and Loran.  I removed both (the Loran antenna was attached to the stern pulpit, so I don't believe any Loran wiring would have gone to the mast).  I removed the radar wiring, but have no recollection of disconnecting the cable from the radar wiring.

Thanks in advance.

Clark Trow

[Matt Cowan]

You mention Loran - installations worked better with a substantial ground connection - so maybe? (Although - where is the wire that goes to the receiver?)

Matt. 

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[Clark Trow]

Matt,

Good thought.  The Loran was mounted at the nav station, not far from the ground cable that all of the other connections are mounted to, so it doesn't make sense to me that a separate ground cable would have been installed (but then, logic does not always prevail).  Before recently, I never removed this particular floor board, so unless the connector had previously been connected to something which ran down the center of the boat, accessible at the mast base, I don't believe I disconnected it.  If I had, I think I would have investigated where the cable ran to.   The previous owners kept the boat at a yard at which the marina was separated from the rest of the facilities by a roadway which until shortly before I bought the boat, had an overhead electric pole line running alongside the road which required that masts be removed every time boats were pulled.  So it is possible that someone from the yard disconnected the cable one fall and didn't re-connect it the following spring.

Clark

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[Rob Toller]



Hello gentlemen. The mystery black wire you reference is the factory installed lightening ground joiner that runs from one of the six bolts securing the aluminum mast base to the hull, directly to the keel. In your case, the black ground wire has become unattached from the base and therefore loose under the floorboards. 

Simple fix for sure. See photo showing where wire is attached on my 36+

Cheers 

Rob

1995 C&C 36+, WK, hull 84

On Mar 1, 2026, at 2:14 PM, Clark Trow <clar...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Clark Trow]

Rob,

Thanks so much. Just out of curiosity, why is your cable disconnected?

Clark

P.S.  I hope one day to get my bilge as clean as yours!

On Mar 1, 2026, at 3:24 PM, Rob Toller <rtol...@gmail.com> wrote:





Hello gentlemen. The mystery black wire you reference is the factory installed lightening ground joiner that runs from one of the six bolts securing the aluminum mast base to the hull, directly to the keel. In your case, the black ground wire has become unattached from the base and therefore loose under the floorboards. 

Simple fix for sure. See photo showing where wire is attached on my 36+

[Peter Griffin]

Wow Rob. That’s a clean bilge! 

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 1, 2026, at 4:59 PM, Clark Trow <clar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Rob,

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[Jack Huttner]

You dog!  You been waiting to share that photo haven’t you?  Put me to shame. Well done!  

Jack
585-530-9521

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