Cal 31 Steering

[matteisenberg]

Dear CAL 31 owners (or folks familiar with pull-pull steering),

I'm the owner of a 1983 Cal 31. It has a conduit "pull-pull" Edson steering. The setup in my boat is pretty close to the diagram in the Edson data sheet here: https://edsonmarine.com/content/Sailboa ... 29%20D.pdf

I'm surprised why the boat was set up with conduit? The runs are very short and there is line-of-sight from the bottom of the pedestal to the quadrant. My steering needs to be replaced. It's very stiff and lubrication did little or nothing to help. Edson recommends replacing the conduits every 7-10 years, I suspect I'm way past that.

My question is, can I switch to the standard sheave and pulley system? Anyone have that kind of steering on their Cal 31?

Thanks,
Matt.

[Mary Mac]

I have found that calling to chat with the people at Edson is very helpful. They are very knowledgeable and may be able to give you some good advice.

[matteisenberg]

Thanks Mary, I did that and they were very helpful - up to a point. Ultimately they said I should engage a marine architect.

Thanks.

[rcvesselstyn]

Hi Matt. I will take a couple of shots of how my Cal 2-29 is rigged up. It's very similar but no conduit. I'll be going down to the boat after this storm passes just to make sure everything is okay and I'll stick my head in the lazarette and get you a couple of pictures. It will probably be a couple of days cause the storm won't be over till Friday and then we've got New Year's, but I'll post them when I get them.

[rcvesselstyn]

20220102_145332.jpg (3.69 MiB) Viewed 3432 times

20220102_145322.jpg (3.83 MiB) Viewed 3432 times

[matteisenberg]

Thanks very much - this is very helpful to see. Thanks for the pictures!