>Most paddlers think that going straight is primarily a function of boat >design. Tracking is probably the most sought after characteristic in sea >kayaks. Stores are loaded with long, straight keel lines, tippy >cross-sections, and lots of rudders. Most paddlers would argue that my >rudderless, rockered, rubber kayak is no match for a Kevlar rocket when >it comes to tracking, and they would prove it to themselves by paddling >both boats one after the other. And sure enough, they would be right -- >for them. I agree with what Clark had to say. For a given boat, the ability to control that boat has more to do with the paddler than the design. I recently installed a retractable skeg in a customer's (Donna) boat. She likes it and she says it helps her. I finally got a chance to try it myself, and I decided I felt more in control with it retracted than with it deployed. So when Donna paddles the boat she finds it easier to control with and I find it easier without. I never have any trouble with tracking with this design and deploying the skeg makes fine tuning more difficult, where Donna does not have the skills yet to maintain the more gross control over the boat in adverse conditions, so the skeg provides that for her. I predict she will use the skeg less as she gets a better feel for how the boat responds. BTW, I sort of like the idea of the skeg, even though it is a moving part that will probably fail eventually. It provides a fairly inobtrusive means of fine tuning the performance of the boat. If it does fail, barring a rupture of the skeg box, it shouldn't disable the boat. Maybe with more time to get used to the skeg I might start using it more as I learned how I could tweek the performance with different amounts of skeg exposure. Because it is another form of control, with practice it should provide more degrees of control instead of fewer. I'm still anti-moving parts, but I think a skeg is worth investigating further. Anyone have a boat with a retractable skeg have any additional comments. Nick Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks c/o Newfound Woodworks, 67 Danforth Brook Rd, Bristol, NH 03222 (603) 744-6167 Schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ >>>>"It's not just Art, It's a Craft!"<<<< *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Oct 09 1998 - 11:50:45 PDT
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