Spring Stay Puzzle

[billknny]

Gee, I thought I was asking a simple question! NowI know the reason that I became a chemical engineer instead of an electrical engineer!

Let's see if I have understood the things discussed.

With an insulator at the center of the spring stay, I can run a coax from the antenna tuner up to the insulator where I connect it to each side of the insulated spring stay with a balun (had to look that up, but still don't really have a good feel about what it might look like!). This makes a large dipole antenna witht he main mast as one leg and the mizzen as the other.

It sounds like there is a difference of opinian on the effects of the lightning gound on the mast, which theoretically would ground the two ends of the dipole, which even I know would not be a great idea!

All this might be of theoretical interest since it sounds like the lead of the coax can't go back to the mizzen along the spring stay. If it deviates much from that, it will interfer with my mizzen staysail, which I am loath to lose the use of!