AI surfing and those "pesky" rudder pins

Well I have an opportunity to practice my get through the reef and surf over the past weeks and found the AI can surf pretty well. I have a shallow reef in front of my condo on west Maui about 400 yards out and there is small inlet about 50 feet wide that is deep enough to peddle through even at low tide. I have to wait for a smaller wave set to get out but the return is a blast with full sail, turbo fins and skag straight down, rudder in place, I let her rip through the surf and it is like the AI is on rails. What a great purchase.
On a sad note these rudder pins keep breaking in the trade winds, 2 yesterday and the Maui dealer is out of stock. I picked up a couple of nylon 3/8 X 3" bolts to try and a 3/8 X 31/2" steel bolts just in case all else fails.
I had a really tuff time getting back to shore yesterday with the wind blowing me off shore. I finally let out some sail and slowly headed for shore using a paddle as a rudder. I'm hoping Hobie comes up with a better pin in the near future.

I checked with a 'fastener' dealer and they have a brass bolt
which fits the specs of the Hobie AI rudder pin.

But I am nervous about putting in a pin which may not break before
the rudder bracket.

When someone replaced their standard rudder pin with some other
material, did it create even more complications?

My dealer stated that he did not have any AI owners in for replacement pins all summer! (But here in MN, most of the AIs are sailed on small lakes with waves which may max out at maybe 2 feet)

I plan on sailing my AI on Mille Lacs Lake (20miles across) which can develop very steep 5-6 ft waves because the lake is so shallow.

It appears that the factory rudder pins have trouble surviving steep waves.

So I have ordered a dozen and a half of the standard pins...(my dealer
doesn't stock more than a few pins, normally)

The pins haven't broken while entering or exiting the surf, they break when the wind speed get higher and usually on a tack. They just suddendly snap. If you have any info on the brass pin post it, I would rather replace the rudder assembly from hitting the reef, whch I haven't, than constanly losing the rudder pins
Thanks for the response

Hey jholtco,

I've been surfing 1-2 foot waves over the reef in Kaneohe Bay. It's a blast. But, anything bigger, and the nose pokes and the whole boat submerges. This is when staying perpendicular to the wave. I'm not comfortable cutting across the wave unless there is a lot of wind to stay out in front. I'm quite worried about an ama collapse or the boat flipping or some other equipment stress (being a quadriplegic, I just can't have any of that). Anyway, do you have any technique for keeping the nose up?

Mike

Be careful with any harder pins.

I was running Test pins from Hobie (harder than the newer pins). Never broke a pin!

I've now been waiting just under 10 weeks for a replacement hull.

Kayaking Bob

what kind of conditions did that! Im glad my pins that I ordered in mid August came in last week!

Philip wrote:


There is a good discussion of pins at http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=10518&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Keith

That's not a pretty picture, KBob! I'm glad I ordered a whole mess of pins, and glad to report no more failures since the day my wife had two of them snap.

I have been putting a bit of SailKote lube on the rudder pin/hinge assembly, and also making sure that our rudders are all the way down and locked before sailing. I'm not sure if those precautions are helping, but they can't hurt. (Also found a little SailKote on the furling bearings makes operation smoother.)

Going to be using that SailKote on The AI for sure.

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