With a deck stepped mast, theres always the issue of disconnecting and reconnecting the wiring when the mast is pulled. The other problem is that if you ever develop a short or problem in the mast wiring, you have to pull the stick to get at it. I got around the problem by mounting a waterproof junction box to the mast and when the mast was off, drilled a 1/2 hole and pulled everything out from there. (Looks like I could use a little caulk at that hole) I then secured everything to a terminal strip inside the box. I cut the VHF cable and added connectors to each end. The wiring used to come up the middle of the step into the mast. I just re-routed it out where the unused turning block is. From there just run the wires into the junction box to the terminal strip. The trick was to find a terminal strip which could accept the larger current lines (anchor light, steaming light) and also the tiny wiring in the AWI cable. Connection Box As long as the mast was down I re-wired everything and changed the VHF cable to a larger size. The hardest part of this was after drilling the exit hole larger at the base of the post, fishing around to snake the wiring through the hole and up the post. Definitely a 2-person job. The way we did it was with a weighted piece of thin spectra line down from the top of the post, on deck, and a pair of really long, thin needle nose pliers to pull it out of the hole. The long black wire from the base of the post on the right is a grounding cable and is connected to a keel bolt. Compression Post Wire Exit