: My wife has an NDK style skeg - on an NDK boat. We've spent hours working
: on it, but it is still so stiff to operate that it takes both of us (out of
: the boat) to get the thing to retract. There's no point having something
: that is easy to build but impossible to operate.

That's the polar opposite of my experience with my NDK Romany. In fact, last night, I hardly ever use the skeg but during a club paddle in a hard 25 knot quartering wind, I was thinking to myself as I adjusted my roped skeg. This is very nice, easy to adjust, and I was able to micro adjust it perfectly in a matter of a couple of tries, just as easily as I would have with my wire skegged boats. Don't know what the issue is that you're having. Are you using non-stretch rope?

: Have a way for a partner to reach
: under the boat and have something to pull. I can operate my wire skeg with
: one finger and by launching backwards off sand, almost never get it jammed.

This is all good advice and standard practice for people with skegs. Thanks for pointing this out. People using skegs for the first time may not realize this.