Pirate wrote:
Sorry guys but my original belief that it is not so much the hardness of the pin material that is the issue but engineering and quality control problems surrounding the gudgeon pin and pintle diameters that is causing the problem in many boats. Like Tom I will await passing of time before I give this 'fix' a thumbs up....Pirate
A gray pin broke on me out of no where today. I'm really going to agree with pirate now. I don't think it's the toughness of the pin but the minute differences in diameter. The pin I broke I had just replaced, I had one other run on the pin and then went out today. When I put it in and when I checked it today it seemed a little looser in the rudder assembly than the previous gray one. So today there were kind of lite winds 10-15 mph most of the day. I was sailing around all day, I turn to do a down wind run and I'm going down wind down swell (small today 2ft or less swell) for about an hour with the sail reefed way in so I'm only going 3mph or so. I go to adjust the rudder and get no response, I look back and it's the dreaded rudder dangle problem, aka broken pin
I really have no idea what broke it, there was no stress on the rudder at all at time of breaking. I'm always very careful not to put too much stress on the rudder with my steering and I always pull tightly on the down cord and cleat it tight. I've had pins last 20 sails before I replaced them, but this one broke for almost no reason. It's gotta be the diameters.
I tried to keep the pin but the pieces found their way into the scupper holes during all the commotion.