> I just built a skeg out of 4mm plywood and before I put on the deck of my
> Actic Tern I want to install the skeg but where? Can anyone help, the
> Arctic Tern is a hard chined hull if that makes any difference. Thanks. Bob, my two hard-chine kayaks both have retractable skegs: My Tursiops is a short, wide, extremely stable and manouverable kayak. The original plans did not have a skeg, but I never regretted putting one in: With the skeg up, the boat will behave like a drunken driver on New Years Eve, with the skeg down it tracks beautifully. My Seguin is a fast, narrow boat that tracks very well even without the skeg that the designer put into it. But: In this boat, the skeg is used to adjust for beam or rear wind and waves. It's very useful to make the kayak track straight towards a chosen point, regardless of wind direction from the side/behind. You just have to make an accurate adjustment of how much skeg you drop down into the water. In both boats my skeg is placed around 80 cms forward of the stern. I have bungee chord on deck from the stern to the "arm" of the skeg to drag the skeg down into the water - and a line going forward to the cockpit to bring it up. Very simple, and satisfying. During the latest years of Greenland development of the kayak, meaning the beginning of this century, the Greenlanders also made "retractable" skegs for their kayaks, "retractable" meaning the skegs would fold down sideways if hit by ice or stone. Their skegs were fastened with straps around the hull. So, if you have a hard chine, manoeuverable kayak, the skeg will give you great tracking. If you have a kayak that already tracks well, the skeg will give you an easy way of tracking "on course", regardless of wind and waves from the side or behind. The only good substitute for a skeg, I think,is to make a "square" stern on a hard-chine kayak - a fixed rudder on a boat that turns easily. I think the baidarka stern is supposed to work this way.

A hard chine kayak doesn't really need a rudder, so why mess up the looks of the boat - and even losing the comfort of firm, fixed footbraces?