Centre cockpit steering cable

[John Boor]

Getting boat ready for launching May 02 and just noticed my steering cable is loose. Question how tight should it be.

John boor

[Roy M]

I use an Edson steering system for my center cockpit multihull. The sheaves are about 9" in diameter, and several of them, for both cables. At the rudder quadrant, they are secured with small turnbuckles. I center the rudder and the wheel, then tighten the turnbuckles down firmly to have as little slack as possible, and little "slop" in the play of the wheel. Also, I use Amsteel Blue, 1/4" braid instead of stainless cable. It's easy to establish eyes in each end. I am probably going to shift to using synthetic light line wrappings to replace the turnbuckles.