hey bill

was just looking at project x again and remembered that you GLUED the skin to the keel and some of the stringers(gunwale probably).

so say you took ANY skin yak and glued(whatever method) the say 18inches of the skin to the stringer somewhere in the last quadrant - probably would have very minimal if any recognizable more stiffness than if not(obviously in yours - no diff). and say you made this 18 section of the stringer twice as wide say 1 1/2 to 2 inches(shaped to the bottom section - the tiny skin deflection when immersed would be too small difference to really care about), glued the skin only to this whole section(epoxy, say), made sure no rib in central 12 in of this 18 in pc( or cut one short), and routed out(chiselled or whatever) a 1/2" wide by 12in long cutout thru this wide keel, seal the wood.

mount a glass skegbox and skeg on the top of this section of keel and modify your footbrace to nick's rudderpedal system.

Then you'd have the first adjustable skegged skin kayak in the world!!

-mick

maybe call it project 'x' - tra