Cal 31 Steering System

[matteisenberg]

Dear CAL 31 owners (or folks familiar with pull-pull steering),

I'm the owner of a 1983 Cal 31. It has a conduit "pull-pull" Edson steering. The setup in my boat is pretty close to the diagram in the Edson data sheet here: https://edsonmarine.com/content/Sailboat DS/CAL 31 (S-934-2) D.pdf

I'm surprised why the boat was set up with conduit? The runs are very short and there is line-of-sight from the bottom of the pedestal to the quadrant. My steering needs to be replaced. It's very stiff and lubrication did little or nothing to help. Edson recommends replacing the conduits every 7-10 years, I suspect I'm way past that.

My question is, can I switch to the standard sheave and pulley system? Anyone have that kind of steering on their Cal 31?

Thanks,

Matt.

 

[jssailem]

Hello Matt. Welcome to SBO.
I have the Yacht Specialties binnacle on my Cal35Cruiser. It uses the sheave and pulley system. I would think, if you have the room, that you could make the switch. It is my understanding that the conduit method was to solve the issue of stuff in the binnacle getting tangled. Wires and more were considered important to having a full suite of displays at the helm. The more stuff added the greater the problem of a failure with helm operations.