Steering Pedestal Changes

The original pedestal with its long throttle and shift levers and conspicuously large round speed and depth gauges had a distinctly retro look to it. The look was reminiscent of an old science fiction spaceship bridge and would look right at home in a Flash Gordan movie.

With no need for a throttle and shift lever and with the age of the gauges (likely analog since both had gain potentiometers on the back), the section above the steering portion of the pedestal and below the compass had to be removed. A new support for the pedestal bars was needed, therefore new bars. New instruments were needed.

Some of the work described here is partially completed. When complete work will be described in completed work web page.

Removing Steering Controls and Old Instruments

The compass was easily removed, though the bolts were somewhat frozen in the aluminum casting. The compass bolts were short phillips head 1/4-20 pan heads. The aluminum casting on which the instruments and the throttle and shift controls were mounted was very difficult to remove. The bolts were also 1/4-20 but were long and with slotted flat heads. Over an hour of heavy pounding with a hand held impact screwdriver was needed to free them. Because of their length, they bent and were stuck in the housing that was being disposed of anyway.

The old pedestal bars were 1" with 12½" spacing. The bars were short, just under 4'. The bars came off with the aluminum casting that was removed.

Removing the wiring was a bit difficult as well due to the way the wires were routed aft of and under the steering cable pulleys rather than forward of the pulleys.

New Steering Pedestal Bars

The new pedestal steering bars are 1½" diameter with 12" spacing. A NavPod TP325 12" top plate has been installed. The NavPod AG218 AngleGuard has been ordered. This will require new bases. The holes for the old bases will have to be filled.

Steering Pedestal Instrument Pod

A NavPod GP2050-16 Pre-Cut SailPod will be ordered. This is pre-cut for the Raymarine Axiom 9 multifunction display. This display is compatible with quantum radar, chirp sonar, evolution autopilot, and many instruments. A Raymarine DST800 Thru-Hull Smart Sensor has been ordered to replace the two existing transducers. This will replace the depth and speed instruments removed with the throttle and shift lever base. The display also provides built in GPS.

A separate instruments web page describes the full set of instruments planned to be installed over time.