The pic below is of the "temporary" skeg mounted on my Guillemot in early '98. It was sawed out of a pine 1x4, left rough on purpose for fine tuning, and fastened with a bead of 3M 5200 marine grade urethane caulk. Well, no fine tuning turned out to be necessary, and if it aint't broke don't fix it, so it's still there. Ugly, but effective. Makes a dandy rub strip too. About 4' long, tapers from 0 to 1", and the fore end is right under the rear bulkhead. A little bit of fin is all it takes to move the center of lateral resistance aft, and greatly reduce weathercocking. The 5200 works well enough that a drawknife or chisel would be required to remove it, even after 4 years.

If I had to do it over again, I would make it 5' long and 2" at the end, but it is so much stronger-tracking now than before that I haven't dithered with it.

: In April I'm going to be doing a 20 mile race on the Charles River in Boston.
: I wanted some advice on attaching a temporary Skeg to the bottom of my
: Guillemot.

: The last two years of this race were plagued with strong cross winds and I
: felt like I used up a lot of energy with correcting strokes. The river has
: manny turns on it but nothing that requires quick action like when
: paddling in the ocean. I figure with a Skeg more of my energy would be
: directed towards forward momentum. I have considered adding a permanent
: retractable skeg but don't want to add the extra weight or to loose rear
: hatch space. I would never consider a rudder.

: My plan would be to shape a skeg and hot glue it on the hull.
: I assume this would be strong enough to stay on for a race but could be
: removed and cleaned up withour much effort. Any ideas on a shape to
: maximize tracking? Any ideas on how to shape the joint between the two?

: Many Thanks

: Jack