Back on March 5th I posted an article titled Steering Cable Inspection, on the importance of inspecting your steering cables and related parts.  Here is the story of Malaya’s steering system inspection.  It involves a little more than just the cables and chain!

Last summer I was contemplating sanding and painting Malaya’s steering pedestal, then I discovered a small crack propagating from the after port base fastener.  It was only a little crack about an inch long but with all the corrosion in the area, I was a bit concerned for the integrity of the pedestal base.

Since our future plans are for some remote area cruising and ocean crossings as part of our refit work this winter the pedestal was added to the list for replacement.  A couple of months ago I sat down with Will Keene at Edson Marine, we discussed my needs and desires and he put together an order for a new Edson Pedestal.  The new pedestal is an upgrade from what Malaya had as it has two sets of bearings on the steering shaft to take the torque that is applied by our Monitor Wind Vane.

Today was removal day for the old pedestal, the hardest part of the removal, crawling under the cockpit to remove the steering cables and the four nuts holding the old pedestal in place.  All went pretty smooth and clean until I started hammering the four half inch bolts out, then all kinds of debris fell down through the 4-inch hole in the deck that the steering and engine control cables run through.  Laying under the cockpit I wasn’t sure where it was all coming from, I did think wow, lots of dirt up inside the old pedestal.  So you can imagine my surprise when I crawled out and saw the base of the pedestal had disintegrated!  It didn’t just break into a couple of big pieces, it literally became large chunks of sand or I should say salt and aluminum.

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As you can see in one photo the small crack on the surface had obviously spread from one side of the base to the other, the amount of corrosion present says it had been broken for a while but yet it hadn’t broken thru the old surface coating.  It would have made for an interesting passage if someone had fallen against the wheel or pedestal while at sea and broken the pedestal off its base.

In the end, while I was a little surprised by the amount of corrosion I am glad I had already made the decision to replace the old Yacht Specialties pedestal with a new Edson unit.  Yes, it was an expense I didn’t really need but now I will definitely sleep better at sea knowing I have a solid pedestal with which to steer!