Mick, good points. The way Valley and NDK do it is by molding two large round washers on each side of the pivot point of the skeg blade. Then the bungee wraps around these large washers. It provides more leverage and also helps hold the skeg blade in place without requiring a pivot bolt. If there's a rock in there, the bungee still doesn't provide enough torque to get it to drop out. The only thing I know of that works is to have a friend paddle to your stern and pull on the string that is attached to the end of the skeg blade. Same with the wire systems I've used.

: solid, they vibrate around causing drag and interfering with the serenity.
: With ¼ inch slop on each side of this one,

Whoops, I forgot to mention that washers are needed between the skeg blade and the skeg box. I used rubber washers. The rubber washers in combination with the 1/4" bungee running on each side effectively eliminated slop and vibration. I need to update the article. This is why I need you guys looking at these things.

: And if you are actually desiring to use bungee, why not attach the spacers on
: ea side of the blade, put the pull hole where bjorn puts his – sorta 45
: deg forward, and totally elimintate the pivot altogether!

I'm not sure that you'd get enough torque by having the bungee there. Bjorn's system uses two static lines connected to the skeg. It may work, but the pivot increases the torque on the bungee. Am I understanding correctly?

: The bungee would hold the skeg in place in every aspect and it sure would be
: a dream to fix or clear or remove on the go.

That's the positive about the NDK or Valley system - they don't have a pivot point bolt on there bungee systems. By having a pivot point instead of just having the bungee hold the system in place, I was hoping to avoid any potential problems of having the skeg blade fall out if the bungee breaks. The pivot point on the skeg blade ensures that if the bungee breaks, the skeg won't fall out of the box. By cutting a slot in the blade to slot it onto the pivot point, it's still easy to remove. That was my thinking anyway. I think both approaches are valid, and I'm probably worrying too much. Bungee doesn't break that often.