Plastic Classic Forum

I have now twice suffered steering gear failures on my Pearson Wanderer. She has an Edson wheel pedestal and twice now the chain has slipped off the gears connecting the wheel to the rest of the system resulting in a total loss of steering. The first time wasn't a problem as I was close to dock and we managed to get her back in OK. The second time though, it apparently was caused by wave action out on my mooring and I had to be towed in after a mooring line exploded (that's another story.) This seems to happen as a result of suddenly putting the rudder hard to starboard. There is an eye at the end of the chain connecting the steering cable to the chain and when the wheel goes hard to starboard the eye rides up onto the gears and in an extreme situation can force the chain off the gears. Obviously, this bothers me as I can all too easily see losing steering in heavy swells while under sail or while motoring. Either the installation is incorrect or the system is badly flawed by design. I'm not sure how to go about addressing the issue. A longer chain, maybe? Or should I just go ahead with my plan to replace the wheel with a tiller?

It sounds to me like the chain is too short if the end of the end of the chain can reach the sprocket with the wheel hard over to either side..

I forgot to ask,, but are there positive rudder stops on each side when the rudder is hard over. A proper installation will have rudder stops to limit the travel and not rely on the cable/cchain length limiting the amount of travel.

There may well be rudder stops, I will dig around under the cockpit and check. There also may well not be, with this boat it could go either way. A lot of things were done right, some were not. If there are no rudder stops, that may well fix the problem. Otherwise, I will contact Edson and see what they have to say about it.

A few other things to think about:

Is the chain centered on the chain wheel when the rudder is amidships? (do you have the same length of chain on both sides of the chain wheel?)

Are the steering cables tight? The chain might be able to jump off if there is slack in the system. You can adjust tension at the quadrant in most setups.

If the chain is too short/ lopsided when you put your rudder all the way to the rudder stop the cog for the chain can cut into the steering cable.