Foolishly chose a beautiful, sunny Melbourne day with gentle breezes forecast to test my 14Turbo out, only to wind up stuck in the bay in 30 knot winds with a busted boom block getting pounded by waves, girlfriend vowing never to sail with me again - lived here all my life, you think I'd KNOW not to trust the weather forecast.

Anyway, I at least discovered that I had the traditional old second hand Hobie cam locking problem. Thanks to numerous posts here have fixed that up but figured I'd replace the rudder pins as well as they were looking, well, green! Went to pull out the top cotter pin and about 1.5cm of rudder pin simply crumbled away. The problem, though, is that the rest of the pin seems to have welded itself to the castings, so I can't simply pull it out.

Anyone know of a fix other than wacking it with a hammer and, knowing my luck, destroying the casting in the process?

If the pin is stock (aluminum), try some pentrating oil (Liquid Wrench) and let it sit overnight before whacking it with a hammer. Use a 1/4 steel punch so that you're just hitting the pin and not the casting.

Get the castings off the boat (unscrew the gudgeons; saw through the pin where it goes through the deck with a hacksaw blade) and put them on a work bench to do this. They are much easier to control and you won't be stressing your gudgeon bolts either.

Thanks for that - will get stuck into it this weekend with any luck