Boston Whaler Steering Tube Repair

Although I love taking my shiny waxed boat out of the barn to get messy in the water, I’m less enthusiastic about dragging it over the muddy, congested freeway and narrow, potholed Seattle backstreets. You never appreciate just how Seattle roads are until you tow something over them. Fortunately, this is the slow time of year for the boat dealer. In summer it takes 3-6 weeks to get into the shop, but being January they could get me in with just two days notice.

This one turned into a pretty serious warranty repair – the steering tube was totally seized up. They figure that they didn’t put enough grease in it during manufacture, combined with saltwater exposure and sitting idle for a few months. I thought I had been fairly meticulous about washing it after each use, but now I’ll have to pay more attention to that particular area. They took responsibility for it though. They said they see this problem about 8-10 times per year on various boats. To fix it, they had to remove the engine, and even remove the whole engine bracket from the transom. This always causes a little damage to the gel coat, so they had to repair that as well. They somehow got the old steering tube out and replaced it with a new one. This new one has a little nipple on it which allows for adding more grease.

I’m sure Boston Whaler has lost money on me. Profit margins on their smallest boats are small anyway, but they sell them to try to get people into the brand. In addition to this problem, which was Boston Whaler’s fault, they’ve also had to replace the gearbox (Mercury’s fault) and the navigation system (Raymarine’s fault). I’m hoping that I’ve now worked out all the “new boat” kinks, and that I can just use it for a while. I will likely have to bring it in for a 100-hour service sometime this year though.