CD 33 - steering warning of sorts

[Brian W.]

we're having glass work done on our 33 to fix the soft cockpit floor problem. They have ripped up the top layer, rebedded it with marine ply and then reglassing the top. the urgency to repair it came from the fact that the steering pedestal was flexing quite a bit, far more than one would want from an item you would tend to grab for security in rough weather. after looking at the situation, it was deemed an "accident waiting to happen."

many are familiar with the problem of water dripping through an opening in the cockpit floor, such as the emergency tiller cover in our case, and then soaking the balsa core. For us, the water also dripped down onto the steering rack causing it to corrode. Furthermore it was determined that from the factory Cape Dory only fastened the rack to one side of the boat. (Perhaps someone knows a reason for this?) This less then sturdy approach also led to the wearing of the cables.

The short of it we're having a new steering rack fabricated and various steering components replaced. Just wanted to pass along to others to be sure to check their steering systems from below this spring. Apparently a leaking emergency tiller plate can do more damage than just soaking your cockpit core.

Brian W.

[Larry DeMers]

Brian,
By rack, do you mean the steering quadrant?? That would fall under the emergency tiller opening all right. Otherwise, what I think of as the "steering rack" would be the frame that secures the two pulleys under the pedestal. On our CD30, the pedestal base was where the leak was that ruined our cockpit floor. From that point forward, the balsa was rotten.

Cheers!

Larry DeMers

s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

we're having glass work done on our 33 to fix the soft cockpit floor problem. They have ripped up the top layer, rebedded it with marine ply and then reglassing the top. the urgency to repair it came from the fact that the steering pedestal was flexing quite a bit, far more than one would want from an item you would tend to grab for security in rough weather. after looking at the situation, it was deemed an "accident waiting to happen."

many are familiar with the problem of water dripping through an opening in the cockpit floor, such as the emergency tiller cover in our case, and then soaking the balsa core. For us, the water also dripped down onto the steering rack causing it to corrode. Furthermore it was determined that from the factory Cape Dory only fastened the rack to one side of the boat. (Perhaps someone knows a reason for this?) This less then sturdy approach also led to the wearing of the cables.

The short of it we're having a new steering rack fabricated and various steering components replaced. Just wanted to pass along to others to be sure to check their steering systems from below this spring. Apparently a leaking emergency tiller plate can do more damage than just soaking your cockpit core.

Brian W.

demers@sgi.com

[Brian W.]

I'm going off of memory, but there was a large metal frame behind the pedestal underneath which the pulleys mounted to. Not sure what of anything else mounted to it. It was a CD fabricated piece, and not anything Edson made. It was the main thing that got corroded. I'll make sure they void the core on the pedestal base as well. I'm sure it contributed to the problem too.

Regards,

Brian

Brian,
By rack, do you mean the steering quadrant?? That would fall under the emergency tiller opening all right. Otherwise, what I think of as the "steering rack" would be the frame that secures the two pulleys under the pedestal. On our CD30, the pedestal base was where the leak was that ruined our cockpit floor. From that point forward, the balsa was rotten.

Cheers!

Larry DeMers

s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

we're having glass work done on our 33 to fix the soft cockpit floor problem. They have ripped up the top layer, rebedded it with marine ply and then reglassing the top. the urgency to repair it came from the fact that the steering pedestal was flexing quite a bit, far more than one would want from an item you would tend to grab for security in rough weather. after looking at the situation, it was deemed an "accident waiting to happen."

many are familiar with the problem of water dripping through an opening in the cockpit floor, such as the emergency tiller cover in our case, and then soaking the balsa core. For us, the water also dripped down onto the steering rack causing it to corrode. Furthermore it was determined that from the factory Cape Dory only fastened the rack to one side of the boat. (Perhaps someone knows a reason for this?) This less then sturdy approach also led to the wearing of the cables.

The short of it we're having a new steering rack fabricated and various steering components replaced. Just wanted to pass along to others to be sure to check their steering systems from below this spring. Apparently a leaking emergency tiller plate can do more damage than just soaking your cockpit core.

Brian W.

[Chris Cram]

Our boat had the problem of a leak in the pedestal bolts causing the steering backing plate to rust. The previous owner had it replaced. Check out the link below (from this board) to see what he did -- it has specifics on what parts he needed to buy/replace.
Chris
s/v Hesperus
CD 30 Cutter



cccobx@prodigy.net

[Larry DeMers]

On our boat, the factory sealed the binnacle bolt holes up, but there was NO BEDDING under the Edson Binnacle at all. So water ran into the holes for the steering cable and throttle/gear shift for 9 years before it was found.
I was wondering if that might not be your source of water also, rather than the emergency tiller port(which was also leaking on our boat, but had not started rotting yet).
Of course, salt water just confounds the problems with it's corrosion of everything it touches. That is one advantage to cold fresh water!

Cheers!

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
CD30

I'm going off of memory, but there was a large metal frame behind the pedestal underneath which the pulleys mounted to. Not sure what of anything else mounted to it. It was a CD fabricated piece, and not anything Edson made. It was the main thing that got corroded. I'll make sure they void the core on the pedestal base as well. I'm sure it contributed to the problem too.

Regards,

Brian

Brian,
By rack, do you mean the steering quadrant?? That would fall under the emergency tiller opening all right. Otherwise, what I think of as the "steering rack" would be the frame that secures the two pulleys under the pedestal. On our CD30, the pedestal base was where the leak was that ruined our cockpit floor. From that point forward, the balsa was rotten.

Cheers!

Larry DeMers

s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30

we're having glass work done on our 33 to fix the soft cockpit floor problem. They have ripped up the top layer, rebedded it with marine ply and then reglassing the top. the urgency to repair it came from the fact that the steering pedestal was flexing quite a bit, far more than one would want from an item you would tend to grab for security in rough weather. after looking at the situation, it was deemed an "accident waiting to happen."

many are familiar with the problem of water dripping through an opening in the cockpit floor, such as the emergency tiller cover in our case, and then soaking the balsa core. For us, the water also dripped down onto the steering rack causing it to corrode. Furthermore it was determined that from the factory Cape Dory only fastened the rack to one side of the boat. (Perhaps someone knows a reason for this?) This less then sturdy approach also led to the wearing of the cables.

The short of it we're having a new steering rack fabricated and various steering components replaced. Just wanted to pass along to others to be sure to check their steering systems from below this spring. Apparently a leaking emergency tiller plate can do more damage than just soaking your cockpit core.

Brian W.

demers@sgi.com