Steering cable broke - does this explanation seem right?

[Australiandad]

Wow a 90 degree radius is a fair ask for any cable under heavy load, I would have thought, but this system was clearly designed by a smarter person than I. I had a similar problem with a trailer sailer keel raising mechanism, the cable just didn’t like the radius. I replaced the wire with the same diameter spectra line. End of issue, I considered dyneema but went for spectra line as I thought I would notice the wear on the outer covering prior to total failure.

[aquadreams]

Originally Posted by Australiandad

Wow a 90 degree radius is a fair ask I would have thought, but this system was clearly designed by a smarter person than I. Was it stainless or gal wire out of interest?

I have no idea, but the repair guy was calling around for a galvanized splice kit.

And here's the kicker, I just noticed this in the boat manual that I linked to in the original post:
- The steering cable must be changed every 10 years

The boat is was a 2009. So due for replacement. There you have it.

[dfelsent]

I’ve had the chain that goes over the drive sprocket on the wheel fail. Of course while racing rounding the leeward mark with the spinnaker up and just having raised the job too.
I had inspected that chain four months earlier.
Lesson for me. Replace on a schedule. The inspection did not pick up the cracked link cause it was hidden by grease.

[Jimmyhenry]

On brand new Bene Oceans 61 we had a steer cable break 2days out from Borabora. Cable was 10 months old. IMO the fault was a sheave diameter way too small. And possibly poor quality cable.