: I almost came to Chicago Paul, on the way home. I got off I-39 by mistake and
: on to I-90 for Chicago, but managed to finally get back to I-39 thank
: goodness. That is the night you had all of the rain with roads closed. I
: still had to set out three hours at a rest stop while it rained hard.

You should have unloaded the boat and paddled for a while

: As soon as I get all of my tools put up in their proper place and get rested
: up, I will start picking everyone's brain for keel ideas.

Forget a keel. These put wood, weight, and added depth in the center of the boat, which is good if your are sailing, but a waste if you are paddling. A rudder or skeg at either end of the boat will have more influence on directing your path due to the added leverage it has ( distance from center of gravity, center of inertia, center of boat, etc.). A rudder is moveable, so you cna adjust it to a slight angle and leave ti alone if that is all you need, or you cna constantly move it with foot pedals for continuous steering. a skeg is fixed -- usually in a straight line with the centerline. You cna vary the amount of influence the skeg has by changing the size, or if you have a retractable skeg you can change the amount of the skeg that is outside the boat. More exposed surface area means it will affect your handling more.

Rudders on kayaks are frequently designed to flip up when you get into shallow water, otherwise, you want to make sure your rudder or skeg is a tab higher than the bottom of your boat -- unless you want it to also serve as a some kind of sacrificial grunge strip and give bottom protection to the back end of the boat. Look at the bottom of the hull first, though, and see how many scratches and dings are on the FRONT of the boat first before you decide to protect the back end with an oversized skeg.

Hope this helps.

PGJ

: Take care,
: John