: I keep playing with the idea of a retractable skeg. I think that
: would be the way to go.

I have a retractable skeg on my hybrid cormorant, but my design was
not quite good enough - the clearances are too slim and the skeg tends
to jam up. As a consequence, I have found out that I can indeed paddle
her downwind and crosswind without the skeg. Adjusting the skeg for a
crosswind can make going on the heading you want a piece of cake, but for
straight downwind it can help tracking if you are going the right way, or
make it very difficult to correct if you are off. I feel that the boat has
a greater tendency to broach with the skeg down if I am at an angle to the
waves. Maybe staying on heading is harder without the skeg, but the boat is
easier to get back on line and moving before the next wave arrives if I have
stalled out the back of a wave when surfing.

The great advantage of a retractable is that you can dispense with it any
time it impairs your control (or makes rolling harder:). The great problem
is that it is much harder to retrofit (or correct design flaws in) a
retractable after the boat is assembled than when the deck is off. I am
going to have to live with a retractable which doesn't always deploy when
I need it because rebuilding it is just too hard...

Hmmm, don't seem to have any photos of the skeg since it was actually
fitted to the boat. Must fix that...

Andy