Wanted Yacht Specialties Steering Pedestal

The one on my 35-3 has a badly corroded base in need of replacement. Please let me know if you have one or have run across one that's for sale. Thanks!

Steering Pedestal

lbertran said:

The one on my 35-3 has a badly corroded base in need of replacement. Please let me know if you have one or have run across one that's for sale. Thanks!

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Try this company.
With all of the boats damaged, they may have something.
Cooper Capital Specialty Salvage, LLC
123 Elm Street, Suite 700
Old Saybrook, CT 06475
Phone: 860-395-4745 x 204

Cooper Salvage

Thanks for the contact info. I did call them but they don't strip out parts to sell, they sell a complete boat or whatever is being salvaged.

Keep trying ALL of the marine second-hand stores you can find, everywhere.
Some friends of ours from Seattle (with the same make of steering) on their E-38 just bought a NOS (new, old stock) base from a Portland chandlery. Their boat's base was corroded away, too. They are rebuilding the whole steering system as a winter project.
They found theirs at: http://www.columbiamarineexchange.com/

There is another local chandler with a second-hand section too: http://www.sextonsmarine.com/

The only "caveat" I can think of is that any (used) example that you cannot personally inspect before buying and having shipped needs to be closely insopected for corrosion in the base casting. Lots of Ericson owners all around the US, so maybe someone could do the "inspecting" for you. (?)

Good luck and good hunting!

Loren in PDX

Thanks, Loren

I'm regularly calling a bunch of boat surplus places and I'm happy to now have two more to call. I'm also exploring using a foundry pattern that a member of this site created a while back to create a new casting of the base, if I can verify that it matches my base.

If you find a used YS pedestal DO NOT buy the later version with the embossed logo cast into the base. These are the bases that corrode like a zinc... These bases have 6.5" hole centers and the original versions have 6" hole centers just like Edson.

Nearly every YS pedestal with the embossed logo in the pedestal base I have seen is suffering some severe to mild corrosion.

On our boat we have the original YS pedestal with 6" hole centers and no embossed logo on the base. It has ZERO corrosion after nearly 34 years. Most of the non-logo pedestals I see are not corroded at all...

In this photo you can see the embossed logo to the left of the broken piece: DO NOT BUY A YS PEDESTAL WITH THIS LOGO BECAUSE IT IS A CRAP SHOOT!!!! The aluminum in that base was very suspect... I have yet to see a non logo versions corrode like this unless caused electrically....

Thanks Maine!

I don't believe that my '88 vintage boat has that casting mark, but I shall check on it soon.

Our base seems solid, but I also know that often they look good right up to the point that they fail, too.

(Yet one more reason I wish the original purchaser had NOT bought the optional wheel-steering package.)


Loren

Hi Laura,

I found this post online, http://forums.s2.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=102431

post #4 gives a phone number for a company in Washington that makes new castings for the engine control lever section of the pedestal. Maybe they also make new castings for the base.

Embossed Logo

My very corroded base has the embossed logo and the 6.5 holes on center. Thanks very much for letting me know of this apparently systemic problem! It makes the option of going for a new casting all the more attractive. Hopefully, the foundry can use aluminum that will withstand corrosion. And thanks to all for the feedback so far!

Yacht Specialties

Laura you will find it is spot welded on in 3 spots, wher the tube ends inside the casting. Also, expect to find it corroded on. After using a cut off disc on my die grinder, it would pop and crack, as the stress would relieve. I never finished removing it, as I found the one Loren was speaking of, in Portland. Feel free to e mail me for any info.

Harold SV Mischief

I'm in the middle of having a new base made for my YS pedestal. A machine shop has simply sleeved the lower tube, then welded a half-inch aluminum plate as the base, with countersunk holes for the SS bolts.

I haven't got it back from the shop yet, so no pictures just yet--but I've seen it, and it's a beautiful job that looks like it just came from the factory.

I think this is the most simple solution to the typical corroded base problem, and it retains the whole pedestal-binnacle-nav station as before--no surprises or unmatching bolt holes.

My cost is less that a used YS pedestal, which usually goes for $450 or more.

Oceano said:

I'm in the middle of having a new base made for my YS pedestal. A machine shop has simply sleeved the lower tube, then welded a half-inch aluminum plate as the base, with countersunk holes for the SS bolts.

I haven't got it back from the shop yet, so no pictures just yet--but I've seen it, and it's a beautiful job that looks like it just came from the factory.

I think this is the most simple solution to the typical corroded base problem, and it retains the whole pedestal-binnacle-nav station as before--no surprises or unmatching bolt holes.

My cost is less that a used YS pedestal, which usually goes for $450 or more.

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Are you planning on finishing it in white power-coat, white LPU, or hard-coat anodising?

(just curious)

Loren

I think I'll just paint it with Brightside white. I just painted my boom with it, and even the impossible color black came out not bad. Not sure about primer for the raw aluminum base. Maybe Zinc chromate, although Interlux says two coats of Pre-Kote is all that's needed.

I have a love-hate thing with roll and tipping Brightside. When it works it's beautiful. But you have to be a micro-climate meteorologist to guess how much to thin it according to weather in the next ten minutes. And it always seems to need to be thinned. And it has to go on so thin it needs four coats.

Ah, Brightside--I only stick with it because eventually maybe I'll learn to get it right.