[quote=jonathan162][quote=thaniel]
Hadn't thought of plastic, though to unlock the Prindle's rudder and pull it up it takes a LOT of force on the uphaul line. I'd be afraid I might break a plastic one trying to pull the rudder up.[/quote]
There's little reason to be afraid. The shear force exerted when you pull it up by hand may seem like a lot to a mere mortal, but is [i]nothing[/i] compared to the force exerted when the rudder - attached to the entire mass of the boat, and at speed - hits an obstacle. Orders of magnitude difference. Trust me - you can draw some diagrams and do a couple of measurements and work out what happens when you pull that line, and maybe take some SWAGs at what it is when you're moving at 15 knots.
On the other hand, you can err on the side of safety: Replace those pins with plastic - I'm sure someone here can tell us pretty quickly what the material Hobie (or other) uses for rudder pins, and getting a couple of feet of the appropriate rod stock is usually cheap and easy. And if you [i]do[/i] break one, you can consider the circumstances and whether a stronger pin is appropriate, and you'll have your Al pins as spares. But the last thing you want to discover is that you've used a pin that is stronger than all the bigger and more expensive parts around it; better to do it the other way around.[/quote]
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