I used internally-mounted Keepers on my Arctic Tern and thru-hull-mounted Yakimas on my Outer Island. Preferences for the two seem varied, but I think people assume the Yakimas are stronger because they're aluminum. The Keepers pegs are smoother, so if you paddle bare-foot, they are easier on your feet. Internally-mounting the Keepers was easy -- I drilled out the mounting hole to accept my stainless machine screw, then counterbored (not having access to real machine tools, I just ground out a depression with a Dremel) deep enough to cover the head of the screw. The footpegs can still be removed from their tracks. I didn't install hatches or bulkheads on my Tern, so this was a nice feature for pitching gear into the end of the boat.

All that being said, I'll probably make a foam bulkhead/footbrace for my next kayak, but if I had to choose between Keepers and Yakima, I think I'd go with the Keepers...

One more point: when I drilled the mounting holes in my Outer Island, I used one of the Yakima tracks as a template -- bad idea. I drilled the oversized holes and test-mounted the braces before re-filling the holes. I found that the threaded holes on the 2 tracks weren't at the same distance, and had to 'ovalize' one hole a bit to get the tracks to mount. This ended up O.K., because they were only ~1/8" off. I just filled the holes with thickened epoxy and later re-drilled them slightly off center.

Dean

: Hello All;

: Received my Yakima 14" footbraces yesterday, and they seem rather heavy
: to me. Nicely made, but probably overbuilt for the intended use. They
: weigh in at over 1.2 lbs . . . That's probably my coaming plus the two
: fiberglass hatch lips combined.

: After drilling out the threads for the through-holes. I'll also have to mill
: away a part of the channel to be able to fit in screwheads at the mount
: locations for non-through-hull mounting. Are y'all sure this is the
: footbrace you like the best?

: Best Regards, Spidey