Pedestal guards
serve a lot of purposes. In addition to serving as a mounting place for a variety of instruments, it is an all-purpose grab rail. As such, it's got to be VERY firmly mounted. Most pedestals have a mounting bracket for each foot that requires holes, normally 1/4-inch or so, to be drilled thru the cockpit for mounting bolts (which should be backed up with heavy a fender washers) which should be caulked in place. Then the pedestal is secured by a bracket plate that normally fits under the binnacle mounted compass. You will really like having a pedestal guard and will find it very useful -- all the more so by insuring it is mounted as securely as you can get it.