Re: [Paddlewise] Hull Modification Photos and Skeg Issues

From: John Blackburn <jgblackburn_at_erols.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2002 14:12:18 -0500
Chuck Holst wrote:

>No, I thought of it just before I wrote it. Here are a couple of other 
>thoughts: (1) The protective strip would have to be flexible enough not to 
>interfere with the deployment of the skeg. (2) It could interfere with the 
>hydrodynamics of the deployed skeg and add significant drag. The latter 
>could doom the whole idea.
>
>On my to-do list is drilling a small hole in the skeg near the end that 
>could be used to pry the skeg out with a screwdriver if there were a 
>significant jam.
>

An idea and a question. Here's the question; I'm also about to drill a 
small hole in the tip of my skeg, it's only a piece of thick 
polyethelene or something similar, so the hole is the easy part. Has 
anyone had any experience with running a piece of fishing line through 
the skeg hole and making a small loop, so someone could come up along 
side and be able to reach under your stern and have something they could 
get a grip on to give the stuck skeg a yank. This has been recommended 
to me but I'd think it would pick up all sorts of weeds etc. and be a 
source of serious additional drag.  I'm slow enough as it is.  :-)

The idea;  Develop a sliding plate that retrackes into the hull as the 
skeg is deployed and when the skeg is raised the plate moves out of it's 
housing and covers the skeg slot completely, giving better hydrodynamic 
drag when the skeg is up.  Very similar to the idea behind fairings over 
a planes landing gear storage wells.  The control of the fairing plate 
could be ganged to the skeg control somehow, or directly to the skeg 
itself.  However our simple skeg is getting more complicated now and has 
more failure modes.  Anyone know what kind of additional drag the open 
skeg box opening adds when the skeg is deployed and retracted, what 
ranges, maybe, rules of thumb?

John Blackburn
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************
Received on Fri Dec 27 2002 - 08:59:42 PST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:01 PDT