: Personally, I cant see any reason why a well maintained and engineered
: rudder/skeg setup should be any more likely to fail than any other item on
: a kayak that is suject to repetitive stress-like your paddle or indeed
: yourself !
: Both of these item can and do break at inconvenient moments.
: If you tip out and your boat blows away you rely on your
: PFD/flares/radio/buddies. If you fall out in cold water you rely on your
: drysuit. If your boat wont go straight you rely on your skeg. Big
: deal-dont feel guilty about it. Just make sure that if you do RELY on it,
: its built right.
: And on the topic of skill level, remember that lots of little unrelated
: shortcomings can add up to one big disaster when the s..t hits the fan.
: Let the flames of anti skegdom begin-but hey, it winter Down Under and it
: might save on the heating bill !!

: Pete

Good points. Maintaining gear and checking it every trip is wise. I use and teach others to use rudders and skegs and they definietely have a place in paddling.

My paddle is pretty simple and so is my spare paddle, simple usually doesn't malfunction as often as more complex.

Numerous postings here have talked about skegs jamming with sand. My rudders start with a slider holding the footpeg, the footpeg with several parts, the slider fastened to a cable, the cable running thru a tube, the cable swaged or bolted to one piece of the rudder, the rudder made up of several pieces (swivels, bolts, nuts, wheels, axles, angles), rudder ropes that fray and catch, rudder blade that can bend or get caught up or down; considerable more to go wrong than on a paddle and much harder to fix on the water than reaching for your spare paddle.

Just about everything that can go wrong to a rudder has happened to my "checked-every-trip" boats over the years while I or a student was paddling.
Have had people slip a foot off a peg and not be able to get it back on without a brace and assistance. Have had people stretching legs, hit a peg adjustment lever and knock the peg off the slider bar, etc.

Not being able to control your boat adequately with just your paddle or spare paddle is very different and basic than an immersion and losing your boat.

There is a difference between if the boat design and/or the conditions are severe enough that the boat won't go straight, and not being able to paddle a boat straight under normal/fairly benign sea conditions.

You're absolutely correct with "Just make sure that if you RELY on it, it's built right."

Australia or New Zealand? Would love to get back to that area again and do some paddling. Alaska is great right now but not for water sports during your summer.

Randy