New Merriman Yacht Specialties Pedestal Guard Group Buy

treilley

treilley

Sustaining Partner
I am calling around to marine fabricators to get a new pedestal guard. This will be 1" 316 SS, thick wall tubing with 12.5" center to center width and 50" height. Guards can be shortened if needed with a simple pipe cutter. It is a simple single bend guard. Nothing fancy.

I am hoping we can get enough folks to get a group buy. Let me know if you are interested. I will update you when I get more info.

This is the standard width for most all Ericsons with the YS pedestal but you should measure to make sure.
 
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crznhwy1

Member II
Pedestal Guard and Bracket Needed

I have a YS pedestal on my '73 E27, but no guard and no bracket to mount the guard to the pedestal. It seems those brackets are impossible to get. Any chance of asking your fabricator if they can fashion those too?

Mike
 
treilley

treilley

Sustaining Partner
I wll be fabricating my own custom bracket based on my setup. It is not hard to do this. A friend did his in starboard. I am not sure what I will use yet. Maybe Aluminum but that is harder to work with.
 
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crznhwy1

Member II
I've been at the same spot, trying to decide how I want to fabricate it, aluminum or starboard. I've also been considering, if I fabricate it, whether to go 12" or 9, like the Edsons.

Mike
 
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crznhwy1

Member II
Yes, I've read those threads. There are a lot of opinions on the subject, which makes it hard for us new "lurkers" to decide which way to go.

Mike
 
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crznhwy1

Member II
One question I would like to ask, not having worked with Starboard, will it be strong enough? I am a big guy and if I had to grab the guard to keep from falling over, would it be strong enough to keep from breaking the bracket? This is why I wondering if aluminum isn't the better way to go. Opinions?

Mike
 
treilley

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Mike, my friends top plate he fabricated out of 1/2" starboard seems strong enough. If you are worried, another option is Garolite G10 which is basically fiberglass. Easier to work with than aluminum, stronger than Starboard but more expensive.
 
Loren Beach

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
One caveat to using a cast resin product for something like this is that it has no internal reinforcing. I doubt that it could come close to the tensile strength of aluminum, stainless steel (both of which are used for top plates that link up to the guards) or a glass cloth layup in epoxy like a G10/FR4 plate.

It might work just fine, but... still, I would be hesitant...

.01 worth,
Loren
 
treilley

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Pricing update

I have a quote from Nautilus Marine Fabrication in Trenton, Maine. They do very nice work and are considered one of the best in the NE. They quoted me $100 for 3 or more. I am buying one so if 2 users(or more) are interested, let me know. I will wait til Wednesday to place my order.

Shipping will be additional.

http://www.nautilus-marine.com/index2.html
 
Loren Beach

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Tim,
Good going!
If that's in a mirror polish, that's a very reasonable price. Shipping, if needed, will add a bit, though... gotta box it up well... and insure it.

Ya done good.
:egrin:

LB
 
Rhynie

Rhynie

Member III
Yacht Specialties related - backing into the slip on Saturday my gearshift handle just flopped back. I have a Yacht Specialties pedestal. After taking things apart I got to the segment that mounts the throttle & gearshift handles and found that it is plastic and the leg that the shift cable terminates to was broken off.

Anyone have a secret source of Yacht Specialties parts, or other ideas or suggestions?
 
treilley

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Merriman came out with 2 versions of this housing with the latter being made of cast aluminum. That is the one I have. There are many boats out there with the plastic version of this and have the exact same failure point that you describe.

The good news is that every couple of weeks a guy lists some new ones on ebay. Search for "merriman" in ebay motors. The bad news is that he charges $299 for one. I do not think they are NOS. I get the feeling from his description that he cast and machined these himself. I have no idea who he is or if he is legitimate. It is a fairly odd, specialized item so I would doubt it is any type of scam but buy with caution anyway.
 
Rhynie

Rhynie

Member III
Tim,
I've done sort of a jury rig, 1/8 alum angle bolted through the top and to the stub of the broken piece. I have not tried installing it yet, we'll see how it goes. My other fallback is to move the controls off of the pedestal. I have to research the controls and location as yet.

I looked on E-bay but found nothing. A little backyard aluminum furnace could be lucrative, a home based stimulus package!
 
Rhynie

Rhynie

Member III
Tim,
I found one on Ebay, not the alum, but original plastic type; I could not believe it when I saw it on there. The bid closed this afternoon and I got it - good price too.
I did get the old one mounted back on and it works fine with the alum bracket, so will have that one as a backup.
A problem I noticed is that there are no stops, and on the shift side, in reverse, the travel was bending the cable back against the a gear hub on the main steering shaft. This had caused a bend in the cable end and was binding going into forward as the bent part of the rigid shaft tried to go into the sleeve part of the cable sheath, putting more load on the whole assembly.

The mechanism needs some sort of stop, will see what I come up with.
Appreciate your suggestion to look on Ebay.
 
M

Maine Sail

Member III
I'll

Hey Tim for $100.00 I'll take a shiny new spare!! Count me in and we only need one more.. $100.00 jeeze that's only 1/10th of a boat buck!!

As for Starboard it is PLENTY strong for a pedestal guard top plate and very easy to fabricate.
 
treilley

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Hey Maine Sail. I ordered mine on Thur. It is $110. I did not get any other takers. I would suggest you call Steve and say you want one too. Maybe we can scare up one more and they will drop the price. No shipping charge as they will bring the finished piece to the boat builder's show in March. We are going on 3/22. We get back from the BVIs on 3/21.
 
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