: I am getting ready to build my skeg and have been reviewing all the good info
: found here and elsewhere.

: I noticed that on the commercial boats that have skegs they rotate much
: further down than most of the home build skegs...

: How far do they really need to extend?

: Did anyone come up with a good way to align the skeg with the centerline of
: the boat so everything is straight? Nothing like installing a skeg to make
: your boat go straight and then to constantly be paddling in circles...

: Any thoughts on making them adjustable (I mean to permanently tweak, not to
: rudder..)

: Thanks, Tim

Well on my NDK Greenlander the skeg only goes down maybe 3" to 4", most of the homebuilt versions I've seen go down further. Most commercial ones are fairly long and skinny while most homebuilt versions are more nearly square, so the homebuilt ones need to go down further to have the same area outside the hull when lowered. Advantage of the smaller one is it takes up less space inside the boat.

You won't like my answer for how far they need to extend , they need to extend enough to stop the weathervane effect of a kayak in the wind. How's that for a answer? Having the ability to have more of an extension and not using it all I'd think would be the ideal unless you really want to build several skeg designs and keep cutting up the boat trying them to see what works.

Most commercial boats use a fairly high friction slider or a high friction cable so when you adjust the skeg it stays put. That would seem to be a more simple solution than trying to devise a lock of some sort that would be hard to service. Simple solutions are often better.

That said, I tend to prefer a boat without a skeg, too much complexity that can be fairly easily compensated by edging or a simple weight shift of the paddler.

Bill H.