The Greenlanders designed their kayaks to handle virtually all wind/wave conditions without those contraptions. If your kayak is hard to control because of the waves, it is probably too wide. If your kayak is hard to control because of the wind, the deck is probably too high. The picture of the kayak below is probably the most refined modern adaptation of the West Greenland kayak, made by Betsie Bay Kayaks using the stitch-and-glue process. They've undergone many prototypes since starting as a hobby back in 1980. They are 17'x20.5" with flat decks, and all the paddlers I know who have these boats claim that they are perfectly neutral in wind and waves. And although these are low-volume boats, Star Swift is doing a solo circumnavigation in a kayak like the one pictured below.

I'm not sold on the relatively round-bottomed hull of the Outer Island just yet, but on all other counts I give a big thumbs up. I just took it out last weekend in 20kt winds with 4' waves, and it handled beautifully. I was a bit leery when some breakers came over the deck from the side, but managed to not get toppled. The big test for me was when I paddled in following seas about 45-deg. off of downwind. I expected to have to do a bunch of corrective strokes to keep me pointed toward my goal (a breakwater that I launched from behind) but was amazed to find that I didn't need to do many at all. My mind wandered as I watched the waves around me, and I didn't drift off my heading. At no point did I think, 'shoulda added a skeg.'

Then there is the issue of reliability. Skegs and rudders can get easily broken or jammed with sand and can be stuck in a position that's more detrimental than helpful. Also, if you have a skeg, you always have some extra turbulence there, whether the skeg is deployed or not. Maybe it's better to make a corrective stroke on rarer occasions rather than to have that extra drag even in calm conditions.

Dean

: Imagine yourself purposely wearing a shirt with a great, big bullseye
: emblazoned on it....

: Allow me to respectfully disagree with your statement. In a kayak you're
: bound to encounter variable wind and wave conditions. Why limit yourself
: to a static craft that has no flexibilty to be adapted to the existing
: conditions? A skeg is just a tool for maintaining directional stability.
: Could you attain the same directional stability with an good lean and
: correction strokes? Possibly, but why not just drop the skeg? It doesn't
: mean that the craft was poorly designed, only that with a skeg/rudder it
: can be used comfortably in a wider range of conditions.

: My $.02

: Ross