JohnK

I have fussed with skegs, weight trim, and cockpit locations a lot to optimize paddling my kayaks without a deployable skeg or rudder and have babbled about skegs regularly on this forum.

I have found the most exhausting kayak to paddle is one in a crosswind that weathercocks that you have to edge and sweep with every stroke to stay on course. Changing any one or more of the following in designing a kayak will reduce or eliminate weathercocking. 1- Reduce keel depth at the bow (more forward rocker). 2- More keel depth at the stern (less aft rocker or a skeg). 3- More bow height (to catch more wind). 4- Less stern height (to lessen the sideways push of the wind on the stern). So rocker needs to be balanced (not necessarily equal) both fore and aft to avoid weathercocking or leecocking. Adding rocker will increase maneuverability but it also makes the bow plow more through the water slowing the kayak. By the way, moving weight back in a kayak does all of the above 4 so it reduces weathercocking.

Increasing tracking means making a kayak less influenced by crosswind and/or lateral waves. In reality it is just another way of saying making the kayak harder to turn by external influences (including you with your paddle). It is possible to have a kayak that is (cross)wind and (lateral) wave neutral, which means on the average it tends to go straight. And a wind/wave neutral kayak can be either hard or loose tracking. So all this means rocker influences more than just tracking and a design needs to be balanced.

So let’s talk about a deployable skeg. To be effective it must be on a kayak that weathercocks. So skeg up the kayak turns into the seas (wind). Skeg down the kayak leecocks to tack down wind. And with a partially deployed skeg the kayak is wind neutral to handle crosswinds.

I like a wind neutral kayak with no moving parts (skeg or rudder). I force this to happen with any kayak I build by test paddling the kayak in a crosswind before installing the cockpit coaming and final cut out. I move the seat back (and paddler) to the location that eliminates weathercocking then install the seat, coaming and rear bulkhead.

The fixed skeg in the pic made this Yare wind neutral and also track like a train.