Steering cable replacement

However, try and get spares or something fabricated on a remote island. No chance. First learning point, why don't I carry spare steering cables. Yes they are a bit pricey, but the chances of finding them when you need it if you are anywhere remote is close to nill.

So we sailed from Amorgos to Leros (our home marina) using the tiller and autohelm. We then ordered a complete set of cables from the local chandlers, and whilst we cannot fault the service it was about 10 days before the new parts arrived, we ordered a specific set for our 385, and jeffa made them to order, rather than the generic set that would have fitted but were not as easy to fit.

Ok so on to this year, the boat was launched 3 days ago and we had the new parts. We spent a couple of hours trying to work out how to get the cables replaced without removing the pedestals, but failed.  

At this point I rang back to Inspiration marine, our hanse dealer that we had bought the boat from in 2013.  They, as usual, were brilliant. I mean it's 12 years since we bought the boat, but they were there for us and explained that we had to get the part of the cockpit floor on which the pedestals are mounted up and go from there.  Having dug out the seven teak plugs covering the bolts holding the cockpit floor together, it was quite easy for a couple of engineers (me and a mate) to figure out how to get the old cables out and the new ones in. It took us about three hours for the whole thing.

On inspection, the one cable failed at the point where it rounds the sheave  at the base of the pedestal. All the other cables showed rusting in the same location. 

So my recommendations. Buy a spare steering cable set now before you need it, unless you are infrequent sailor close to a jeffa agent.  Spend some time to grease the cables as they turn at the base of the pedestals from time to time, yes I know it's on the jeffa list of annual maintenance, but make sure you do it, we didn't have that list until I found it on line. 

To be fair, our cable failed at 12 years and we sail a lot. In future I will change them every 7 or 8 years, perhaps when I change the sail drive gator. I will always have a spare set on board. And learn to use your emergency tiller, no problem for me, but maybe not for everyone.  

And finally if anyone needs to know exactly how to change your cables, let me know and I can talk you through the process. It's tedious but if you have a practical mind not too bad, only 3 hours and the entire set is now brand new.

You can order them directly from Jefa using this email.  

At my first inspection on buying six-year old boat, looked like no grease had been applied ever ... grease give important corrosion resistance.

Cheers.