Steering Cable

[RT1]

Anyone ever had a steering cable break while running through the slalom course or just cruising down a lake at speed?  If so, what happened.  I've never had it happen to me, however, I remember years ago a boat was over in the turnpike lake at Okeeheelee for a long time.  We suspected that something was not right and cruised over there to see their boat up against the shoreline, their cable had broken.  Everone was fine and I honestly don't remember what they said except that their cable broke.  I replaced my steering cable a loooong time ago and it seems fine now, but it's always in the back of my mind.   I had a throttle cable break on me during a slalom set last year with absolutely no warning.  Try loading an 87 MasterCraft on the original trailer that has that stupid bar on it without being able to use the throttle handle.  I took the cable off of the carb and hand throttled it onto the trailer as my wife steered and we actually got the boat exactly where it needed to be to reach over the bow and pull that stupid bar into place.   What a piss poor design.  

[swc5150]

I had a cable suddenly go ultra stiff on me while skiing, albeit open water not a course.  Wasn't fun but I made it home. 

Those older MC trailer bow bar things were awful!!

[swbca]

 

Because of the designed rudder pressure there is always tension on the cable when going in a straight line.   Let go of the steering wheel at slalom speed and see what happens.  I have tested this more than once.   On my MC the boat goes into a full lock right-hand spin in less than 3 seconds.  I believe the driver could end up the passenger seat and unable to get back to the throttle control.  The skier's position relative to the boat's path would be uncertain. 

When a skier falls in the course, I have a habit pulling back to neutral and spinning the boat to right at the same time.  It works fine on my MC.  When driving a friend's 196 SN last summer, the boat dug in much harder in that quick turn putting much more lateral force on the driver and passenger.  The owner of the boat is an engineer and was a passenger. He commented that SN moderated that tendency in a later hull.  The point is, the result a broken steering cable will be different with different boats.

Perhaps a driver that always has his hands on the throttle could respond in time before being thrown out of the drivers seat . . I have no idea about that.

A few weeks ago, this same question was raised.  @Horton said he had it happen going around a turn island and the boat ran up on shore.

Edited April 19, 2023 by swbca