* Roger Long wrote, On 3/28/2007 12:12 PM:
Has anyone ever heard of Edson pedestal steering gear chains breaking? I
ordered new steering cables from them a couple days ago and they talked me
into a new chain which they say should be replaced every 5 years. He made a
good case, crevice corrosion, etc., so I went along. I know Edson would
like to sell chain but I wonder how often the actually happens. My chain
appears to be original from 1980. It looks fine but I would have to clean
it up and dye test it to be sure. Quicker, and probably not much more
expensive, to just buy a new chain.

I never had a chain problem, but in a similar vein, I had both the
throttle cable and the shift cable break on the same day when 16 years
old. The shift cable broke when leaving P'town, but we forged on to
Boston regardless. The throttle cable broke as we pulled into the
slip - my wife shifted to reverse at the transmission, burning her
hand, I goosed the throttle to stop the boat, but the cable broke
leaving us with full throttle, backing out of the slip. And, there
was a 2 knot current leading to a dead end in the fairway, and it was
just after sunset. Fortunately, it was a liveaboard marina, and our
calls attracted a large crowd which saved the day.

That was our last trip in the boat; we had a delivery captain take it
to the selling broker, and we bought a new boat.