Rebuilding the pedestal

When I bought Anahata the base of the Merriman pedestal was cracked through and needed to be replaced. I had spent the entire winter looking online for a replacement with no luck. On one of my first trips back to Toronto I passed by HMP Marine Chandlery he had a Merriman, only issue was it was the slightly narrower tube than the old one. I bought thinking I could make it work.

First step, I had to remove the old pedestal which turned out to be a bit more complicated than I thought it would be. First issue I ran into was that the navpod housing had its own special wrench to remove screws. 3 day wait until I could get it from Defender. Next issue was the screws that hold all the bits on the top of the pedestal to it were completely seized. After much procrastinating I eventually worked out a way I could cut the block and at least free everything up.

Next thing, I found while removing the redirect cogs for the steering cable was that one was completely seized. When I had been out sailing I had just assumed that was how stiff the steering was. Corrosion X to the rescue, everything freed up and turning easily.

Removed pedestal, gear lever section and the table/bar holder section. Had to seal up the old bolt holes in the cockpit floor as the new pedestal hole location was slightly different.

I had to send out the table/bar holder section to RS Automation and local machine shop to get the seized bolts removed. Next bit of luck was meeting Kim Stevens, the wife of a local fishing charter captain, who had a powder coating business. She took away the two sections, sand blasted them and re-powder coated them to match the new pedestal.

All looking good now.