Yacht Specialties - I took Mine Apart
Dear Manny: Congrats to you and crew for getting your boat under control so quickly. I hope that I keep as clear a head when I encounter my first unexpected equipment failure. (See my final paragraph for more comment about the emergency tiller on my boat.) Back to your original post re the failed equipment, this past summer I completely removed and reinstalled the Yacht Specialties pedestal on my 1980 Cherubini 36. The steering mechanism was operating fine, but its removal was necessary to repair the cockpit sole's water saturated wood core through which the pedestal is fastened. By the picture that Ian McGain posted, the mechanism looks to be the same that is on my boat. As already posted by Grizz, although Yacht Specialities is defunct, Edson is a source of info. On the web page http://www.edsonmarine.com/support/techsupport.php you can find a pdf file entitled, ".... Planning Installation and Maintenance Guide." Its for their newer products, but it looks like many of the principles are similar to the Yacht Specialties system. Hopefully your cable just became loose over time and finally it slipped out the quadrant cable channels or off the sheaves that angle the cable from the pedestal to the quadrant. But if you do need to take your system apart here's some info about my experience: I did find it useful take close-up photos and make notes of each section before disassembly so that I would have better chance of later remembering how to put it back together. I can’t give you step-by-step guidelines, since I didn’t retain my notes or pictures. But how it fit back together is rather logical. Took a few hours to remove the system and reassembly took me a full afternoon. You probably will be dealing only the the cable/chain/sprocket system, but if the whole pedestal needs be removed, throttle and transmission cables need to be removed/re-attached from the engine side as well. (About a loose cable, before my cockpit sole repair, my cable was somewhat looser than I would have expected as normal ... "not to loose, not too tight". Perhaps this was because as the wood core rotted/delaminated between the upper and lower fiber-glass skin, the pedestal was depressed downward from normal which loosened the tension? My tip-off about the core damage was that the top of the pedestal/wheel assembly would move from side an inch or two when pushed ... it didn't feel solid.) One thing that I did do wrong on my first refitting of the steering cable is that I hadn't noticed that the cable crosses over itself inside the pedestal. That is: If you are standing to the aft of the pedestal looking forward, the chain/cable that drops from the starboard side of wheel chain sprocket crosses over to port sheave that angles the vertical drop of cable back to the quadrant. The other side crosses from port to the starboard sheave. Also although its not readily noticeable, one of sheaves is a bit forward of the other. This is so the cable sides don’t rub against each other as they cross inside the pedestal. This routing inside my boat was hard to see on my boat, but I probably would have missed the cross-over even if it was right in front of me. So best as you can, try to observe and record the routing from the chain sprocket to the sheaves and also the routing quadrant/attach points before you take the steering chain/cable off. If the cable doesn’t cross over itself inside the pedestal, the steering works, but turn the wheel to port and the boat goes right and vice-versa. While I was at it, another item that caught my attention was the molded plastic housing into which the gear shift and throttle handles are set. This is the piece that Ian McGain photographed and was unable to remove the four screws from. I had better luck as my screws came out. While I was researching Yacht Specialties pedestals in preparation for my disassembly project, I read somewhere (probably deep in this forum’s archives) that people have had problems with the plastic housing breaking inside where the shift and throttle lever shafts and cables are anchored to the housing. The accounts cite that if a cable anchor or throttle handle breaks free inside, one might not be able to (say) shift out of forward into reverse. Or the throttle might get stuck at full (or idle). Or the broken-loose part could jam in the steering chain. Any of which would be a heart stopper for sure if the failure occurred (say) after committing to the final turn into a berth. When I had my part removed from the pedestal, I did discover the beginnings of a stress crack near one of the cable anchor points. The web references said that this pedestal part is no longer available and a casting shop would have to custom-make a replacement. I decided instead to reinforce all the potentially suspect areas by encasing/epoxying them with custom bent u-channels I made from stainless steel sheet metal. Then I poured in lots of West Systems epoxy all around to ensure that nothing could possibly ever break apart. Back to your harrowing few moments after the steering failed, your narative rereinforced the wisdom of my decision after reinstalling the pedestal and steering system, to also check out that emergency tiller would function. But when I went to fit it to the rudder post, I found that there was absolutely no way to attach it ... zip, nada. On the boat, there was still the log book of a cruise to Mexico made in 1991. Off the coast of Ensinada, the steering failed and the owner had to be towed in. Repairs took a couple of weeks. (But probably the owner wasn't in a hurry anyway and Tequilla was cheap back then.) I expect that the Mexican yard never put in the fitting for the emergency tiller. Why the owner and subsequent owners never corrected is beyond be. I made a fix and the emergency tiller slips on to the post fine while the boat isn't moving. But your experience has prompted me to practice fitting the emergency tiller the next time I go out. I might find its not so easy when the rudder post is rotating back and forth due to waves and rolling motion pushing the rudder around. Better to discover now that maybe a modification should be made now than making discovery during a real emergency. regards, rardi
. Thanks, Manny
