After doing the same drill, there is now a small fixed skeg on my G17, and you may get some idea of the handling changes in comparison with Cid's G18 without. If you're interested, give me a shout on email and we can get together for a demo.

Pete

: I'm submitting this to the building section because I have some building
: questions at the end of this.

: My kayak is not finished. I don't have bulkheads in, no bungie chords holding
: the hatches down, no bungies on the deck, no foot pegs, no ropes lifts on
: the ends. It is seaworthy enough though so I put float bags in the ends
: and taped up the hatches with strapping tape. Then my friend Cid and I
: went kayaking on a 12-mile trip on Sunday in Ebey slough, which is really
: a bunch of forks of the Snohomish River. I wasn't going to consider this
: my launch since my kayak isn't done, but after 12 miles, how can I not.
: Today we paddled a couple more miles around Greenlake. Sorry, no pictures.

: Here are some of my observations on my new kayak. It has a somewhat low
: initial stability, but high secondary stability. It behaves rather nicely
: and I was never caught off guard where would have had to brace myself. It
: handles the boat wakes really well whether I was perpendicular to the
: waves or parallel to them.

: Cid and I traded kayaks for a little bit and I paddled his new Guillemot 18.
: The kayaks are very similar in how they handle. I like the legroom of mine
: more because it doesn't feel so tight fitting, but his tracks better than
: mine does. That leads me to my problem. When I was paddling upstream in a
: very mild current, the current would sometimes grab the front end and try
: to turn me around. The wind would also have its time with me if I wasn't
: paying attention. Cid had a hard time going straight in my kayak. I didn't
: have a hard time, but I did have to pay more attention than I would have
: liked to. When we paddled Greenlake we didn't have any current to deal
: with, but we did have a little wind. The wind would try to turn both of us
: when it was at our side and we would have to do a lot of corrective
: strokes. Neither kayak tracks real well, but mine is a little worse than
: Cids.

: When looking at the bottom of my hull, it seams as though the back is not
: V-shaped enough to get any "bite" in the water. I would like
: mine to track a little better, so here are 3 possible solutions. I'm
: wondering which one is the best solution and why.

: 1: I could put a triangle strip along the bottom at the aft-most 3' or so of
: the hull where it's under water, or I could just build up a bead of
: fiberglass instead of a wood strip.

: Advantage: This would be real easy to add and would always be helping to keep
: me straight.

: Disadvantage: I'm not sure that this would help very much.

: 2. Skeg: I put my aft bulkhead about 6" aft of where most people put
: theirs so I would have more storage inside the cockpit. This pushed my aft
: hatch back slightly and so I have a great spot for a skeg in the very
: front of the aft hatch compartment. The skeg would hardly take up any of
: the room in my aft compartment since it would be forward of my hatch
: cutout, and it wouldn't interfere with loading of the dry bags. The skeg
: blade would also have to be easy to remove and replace if it got damaged.
: Does anyone have a good plan for a skeg, and a plan for the lift lower
: lever?

: Advantage: I would get the tracking I need and would be able to raise it if I
: didn't want to use it.

: Disadvantage: I would have to deploy it and it wouldn't always just be there
: like the trim strip. I would have to route a cable for it and come up with
: a place to mount the cable control. It would require more maintenance than
: a trim strip

: 3. Rudder: I could cut off the back end and add a rudder.

: Advantage. I could easily correct for anything from wind to currents, or just
: use it to turn.

: Disadvantage. I would have to route 2 cables and 2 ropes. More expensive.
: Doesn't look as good in the water. Upsets many of the readers of this
: board.

: So what is your opinion of the best solution and why?

: Thanks in advance
: Dale