Hi Pirate
Back to original thread..
Looking at pins....the brass pin I have had for a year is tight in the gudgeon ring, the rudder housing rotates around it, there seems to be no wear on the housing...everything is still tight. Pirate, you are right, there appears to be quite a lot of slack between the plastic pin and ring on my new hull and the pin rotates within it and I feel, maybe, that in the case of those that have broken pins this is a possible contributary factor. I am just waiting on a new mast reciever so am still laid up. I am going to take my life/warranty into my own hands and swap the stock pin for my brass one before I start sailing It worked SO WELL on the old hull, but then looks as if the ring column going thru the transom was well covered in plastic inside the old hull. I believe 2 of the hawaiian crew bust transoms using the prototype nylon pins, maybe it would be interesting to look inside and see how deeply inbedded those columns were were in the plastic
Anyway plenty of great tips on how to make and mend on this particular issue. I think you have made your case and it sounds from Matt as if Hobie have 'heard you'It also sounds (take note any of you new to this forum and considering purchasing one of these amazing craft) as if the VAST majority of users are NOT (for whatever reasons) experiencing pin problems. For those of us that HAVE our fixes seem to be working.
I understand that you need a sheer point in the rudder assembly, is there any othere place you could put it? What you want is weak point that fails before anything else if you overload it/strike something yet is not prone to failure under normal sailing conditions thats in a location more accessable than the pin.......OOOh tricky time for a Darwin Stubby!!!! Maybe Hobie should supply a Pirate/philip1el collar that emitts a short but painful shock to anyone sailing in stronger winds without reefing, or with their daggerboards not down fully when close hauled, you could plug it into your fishfinder battery anyone failing to do so contravenes the terms of warranty. Maybe we could wear them while posting to this forum too for every time the word 'rudder pin' is used an extra 10 volt incremental increase delivered