Exactly, Jay. Why didn't I think of that?

Another advantage occurs for old farts such as myself who forget to raise the skeg on landing and then get rolled up the beach a couple times. The longer, less extended skeg is self closing. The skeg type which looks like a surfboard fin will probably snap.

~Bob

: I know from studying and paddling commercially made boats, it's
: very rare that you need a fully extended skeg. Maybe for surfing
: but that's about it.
: If you have a skeg that is longer, you will not loose too much
: speed if you� just crack it an inch or less to stiffen up
: tracking. If you have a skeg that needs to be lowered down deep
: to work well, you will feel the loss in speed noticeably. A lot
: of commercial ones are about 10" or longer. The ability� of
: the skeg to work is dependent on it's length much more so than
: how far it is lowered.