I dropped by Mariner Kayaks today and had a nice chat with the Broze brothers about skegs and such. They agree that skegs are better than rudders, and although one of their designs has a retractable one most of their designs do not. Theirs is molded into the hull, from the center of buoyancy to the stern upsweep, and the claim is that it reduces (prevents, in most cases) weathercocking, and also prevents broaching in surf. They advised that I temporarily fit a chunk of 3/4" stock to the keel aft of the cockpit, load up some tools and go play. Here is more of their advice. The skeg should not extend below an imaginary line extending the keel line from the center of the boat, so it doesn't get ground off on rocks and pebbles. Adjust the shape so that when dead in the water the bow blows downwind just a little faster than the stern, so that when underway and the bow is stuck in its own wave the lateral forces will act equally fore and aft. Take a plane, spoke shave, rasp, Surform or whatever your favorite shaping tool may be and carve on the mockup until it's right. When it seems right, try it out in different conditions and fine tune it some more. When positive it's right, fabricate it out of wood, fair it out and glass it in.

It seems to work on Mariner boats. On the upside there are no moving parts, no leaks, and no places for pebbles to get jammed inside. On the downside, you can't adjust for different weather conditions or desired handling characteristics. Now that my adjustable skeg is almost ready for installation, here comes a whole new slant on the problem. Whatcha gonna do?