I have a Fortrex 101 and its only a couple years old and the release cord has broke on me 3 times already!! I went to Lowes and bought 3 ft of plastic coated steel cable and replaced the "shoestring" used in my trolling motor. For a $1300 dollar trolling motor, MinnKota needs to come up with a more durable release cord system... So far the steel cable cord is working great...