: It could be mounted closer to the center of the boat and that would make it
: much easier to mount, at the expense of storage room. I've noticed that
: quite a few newer commercial skeg boats are mounting the skegs more
: forward than in the past.

Since the skeg box was fitted before the deck was added, it was easy to mount
pretty far aft - indeed, probably easier to mount where the boat was narrower
as I could use a smaller peice of wood to hold the skeg box in place whilst
the epoxy set. Further aft the boat is smaller, so the tube for the cable
was easy to route out of the way than it would be with a skeg further forward.

My wife's Romany has a skeg mounted further forward. To me, this provides less
of the desired effect (shifting the centre of lateral resistance back) per
unit of undesired effect (causing more drag). Also this skeg is a narrow
blade that pivots down deeper below the boat, which seems more vulnerable
when manoeuvering in shallow water. A skeg is not a keel - it is not meant
to provide resistance to rolling - so an area further aft and without too
much increase in draft seems the ideal solution. Of course, one thing I am
not considering (because I don't know enough theory) is that the water is
more turbulent aft, and the skeg might not be as effective as the water gets
more turbulent (ie. further aft and closer to the hull:) and might add more
to the drag in that position. Maybe Nigel Dennis knows something I don't :-)

One thing I would consider for a future skeg would be to offset it to one side
of the centre line as in the Expedition Islander (commercial) kayak, as this
would render the skeg less likely to jam with grit, and make the edges of the
skeg box less vulnerable to abrasion, and mean it was easier to add or replace
a keel strip. Can't go very far off the centreline though, as you lose internal
height to fit the skeg box, unless you use something like the CLC design which
has a deck penetration as well as a hull one...

Andy