The last time I took out my boat with some friends the steering system had a failure and we had almost no steering just under the Golden Gate bridge.
When I later investigated the problem it turned out that a frame of a pulley of the steering system broke and the pulley got pushed in and the wired lost tension and flipped of the big wheel on the rudder post in the back (see the attached photo). Luckily it is screwed to one point of that wheel so a tiny bit of steering action was still possible and we made it back into the next harbor where I rigged the emergency tiller to further make it home to Sausalito. The boat was a little overpowered in the situation when the failure happened but I also have the feeling that the cast aluminum peace wasn't of the best quality. Even the piece that didn't break shows a kind of crack or corrosion at the same corner of the peace where the other one broke. I see if I can find a spare part of better quality.
Has anybody had a similar problem with the steering system of an Olson 34?
Stephan
When I later investigated the problem it turned out that a frame of a pulley of the steering system broke and the pulley got pushed in and the wired lost tension and flipped of the big wheel on the rudder post in the back (see the attached photo). Luckily it is screwed to one point of that wheel so a tiny bit of steering action was still possible and we made it back into the next harbor where I rigged the emergency tiller to further make it home to Sausalito. The boat was a little overpowered in the situation when the failure happened but I also have the feeling that the cast aluminum peace wasn't of the best quality. Even the piece that didn't break shows a kind of crack or corrosion at the same corner of the peace where the other one broke. I see if I can find a spare part of better quality.
Has anybody had a similar problem with the steering system of an Olson 34?
Stephan