: John,
: Saw a boat like this that was out of the water front bow and stern had all
: kinds of performance troubles. The answer was adding weight to sink it
: deeper into the water. I'm betting a romoveable weight belt of 35 pounds
: front and rear might make a difference in the boat and would sink the skeg
: for even more tracking. It would give your boat a different kind of
: stability that would help in sailing too. Good luck

: !RUSS

Hi Russ,

I ordered the retractable skeg plans from CLC and I will be building it this Fall. One thing I noticed in the BWCA was, when my kayak was loaded it was worse in tracking. That didn't make any sence to me. I know it would be different with a skeg but I thought that was strange.

I have a half sheet of Mah. plywood left from building my side compartments that I may use for my retractable skeg building. I think I read someplace that interior plywood was glued with exterior glue now. I have been soaking this plywood for a few days now without any seperation, so we will see. I have been soaking blue foam and will weight it in a week on gram scales to see if it is soaking up moisture. If not, I would think it would be OK to use for bow and stern floatation.

I hope your lungs are OK from the smoke inhalation you suffered from your NY rescuer operation.

Take care Russ,
John