I have broken dozens of rudder pins and am pretty certain that 90% of my rudder pin failers were self induced. It's always the same story. When lauching or retrieving, or running into shallows (a lot of shallows around here), and bumping the bottom the rudder pin gets damaged, not completely just half broke either at the top or at the bottom. Sometimes you can feel harder steering when it's half broke but not always. Then while out sometimes hours later the rudder misteriously fails in open water, and I sit there scratching my head, 'what the heck did I do this time (lol)'.
Now days I'm much more careful, and walk back and check the rudder pin much more often, It's been a year or two since breaking any rudder pins, that's why I say most of my rudder pin issues are self induced.
I always lock my motors and steer with the main rudder without issue (since 2010).
The only exception being speed, I have massive sailsets on my TI (up to 260sq ft), and twin big ole outboards mounted on the TI (our TI is now our only family boat, and we use it for anything and everything water related, (including offshore)). One thing we discovered (the hard way) is as the boat speed increases so does the water force against all the components, "the force of water increases exponentially with speed". My typical cruise speed in very light winds (under 7mph) is around 9-10 mph, even at those low speeds the TI is an exhausting handful to sail. I typically never go out in anything over 7mph winds, When I do go out in higher winds (12-15mph) with my motors at WOT I can easily cruise at 15mph,(which is the max speed my motors can handle without exploding,(Yea I've exploded a few). Anything over 15mph I have to tilt the motors up. However I seldom ever do that, as my fuel economy goes out the window, from 80-100 mpg down to under 20mpg (just not worth it, too painful).
With my big ole spinnaker and decent winds (over 20mph) the boat has been over 20mph many times. Sometimes just playing around I put my hydrofoils on (they are removable), and go out foiling around. I can get up on the foils only in downwind and only in winds over 15mph. Can't foil upwind unless I'm using the motors, (the foils are tuned to rise the boat up out of the water at around 8mph). I've had several serious crashes with the foils and no longer use them.
This is where the boat design begins to break down, (speed). For example in a gust if you bury an AMA at speed the nylon sheer pins simply break from the sheer water force. Same with the rudder, if your barreling along at 20 mph and have to crank the rudder hard to avoid another boat, the rudder just snaps off and flies up into the air. Sometimes taking the rudder gudgeon and all. When that happens my day is over, and I have to steer back home using one or both the motors.
Another issue with these boats and speed is if you hit a series of big powerboat wakes, or big chop the boat is very likely to dive and pitchpole (lol 20 to zero in one second flat), I've pitchpoled a half dozen times, kinda embarrassing, especially when you snap your rear stay line and run over your own spinnaker in the water.
Another wierd thing that goes on with speed is above a certain speed (I think around 10-12mph), what happens is all the scupper drains reverse direction and become drinking fountains, result is the entire back half of the boat fills up to the gunwales with water, doesn't seem to hurt anything as long as your not sitting in the back seat, (that's why I always sit in the front so I don't have to sit in waste deep water).
I could care less what anyone else does with their boat's, sharing where the failures are likely to occur is hopefully helpful. If you want a gofast boat get a hobie cat.
FE
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