: Good Evening,

: There is one thing that has held me back from glassing my 19' Atlantic. Well,
: okay a few things... one is laziness, the other is it's been too nice out
: and I've been enjoying the outdoors, but the main one is that I'm
: terrified of glassing in that skeg that I made and am not totally sure
: about. All I did was deepen the aft stem kind of like the oystercatcher,
: but I'm afraid once it's all done I'll be wishing I had not messed with
: Eric's wonderful design. He may not allow me to ever order another plan
: again!

: Tonight I had an idea that may be old news, and I'm sorry if it is. I was
: waxing down my surfboard and suddenly had the idea of using a surf board
: fin as a skeg. If you are not familiar with them, surf board fins fit into
: slots in the board and are wedged in with two allen screws. Because of the
: "build it yourself" nature of surf boards, you can buy all
: varieties of fins and inserts. Now they even have snap in fins that don't
: require the allen screws.

: The surf board fins would be a bit deep for a skeg, but you could use the
: same idea and carve your own and have a removable skeg system: Big deep
: skeg for rough days, medium skeg for.. you guessed it... medium days, and
: even no skeg for flat days, or for meandering streams that require more
: maneuverability. You could even change fins... sorry.. skegs in the middle
: of the day if conditions changed.

: So, I imagine I'm not the first to think of this. Has anyone tried it? I
: modified my Atlantic to add just a slight skeg because I intend to use it
: in deep water on long straight trips, but now I'm thinking about building
: up the bottom of the stern from inside with a small wood patch, cutting in
: a fin slot, and then experimenting with surf board fins, or shorter,
: longer versions thereof. You would have to be sure to coat the slot well
: with epoxy to prevent water seepage. Of course you would also have to
: ensure the slot didn't go all the way through (hey, it was worth
: mentioning), or cut it through for ease of fabrication and then glass over
: the slot on the inside.

: Here is a link to a popular fin distributor, and a pic of a nice wood fin...
: hmmmmmmmm.....

I put in a fin box from fiberglass supply. I started with a long board fin a have cut it and reshaped it to 3.5 x4" long. I mounted it after our GU17 was finished,cut the slot for the box, set it with dookie, added one layer of glass over it. I did have to make the box more veed to match the hull after it set
hard. On the secound kayak a Artic Tern our next brain storm is to mount two SS tubes in glass and dookie through the plywood. The fin would have two matching studs in it. When you need to beach you have your partner pop it out. I had a radio control airplane the wings were done as such. I will work on it this weekend and let you know how it works out, sunny LA is supose to get 1 to 2 inches of rain Sat.
Don