RE: [Paddlewise] Feed the Need

Tord wrote:

>>>>Maybe a rudder cum skeg is the ideal?! A rudder that only works as a skeg,
deployed
only when needed - one foot down to lower and the other down to lift it?!<<<<



That reminds me, I've been keeping a sit-on-top surf kayak design close to my
vest for many years just in case I wanted to build it someday (but we never
did). I got a little too old and also too busy with business to put the time
in the ocean surf needed to develop it. My thought was to have three
retractable fins. The middle fin would have been much like a regualr
adjustable skeg but the other two would have been mounted more to the side and
have an angle built into them (or have been on a pivoting piece--like a big
slotted peg in a round hole--that could have the angle of the slot changed. I
planned to do something like that anyway on the first prototypes to fine tune
the best fin angle, even if the fins were later just placed in fixed position
angled slots. The slots would go all the way through the sit-on-top hull like
skupper holes (and might serve that function as well).



The central skeg would be for keeping the quick turning surf kayak tracking
straight in calmer waters such as when travelling some distance to find a good
surfing location. The other two skegs would be operated by toe pedals (or I
imagined even by ones knees somehow). Push your toes on one foot forward and
the angled fin on one side deploys and helps turn the kayak (or helps it hold
an angle on the wave against broaching). Push the toes of both feet forward
and both the (oppositely) angled blades could serve as a brake to slow your
speed when you are outrunning the sweet spot on the wave (but know when you do
you will soon slow down on the flat and then be overtaken too quickly by the
wave and likely eaten by the break--or soup afterwards). The angled skegs
would have springs or shock cords that retracted them all the way into the
hull automatically whenever you didn't point your toes. You would control the
depth of the fin by how far you pointed your toes.



Regular surf kayakers should understand what I mean here and just why a brake
that (unlike a paddle) operates without turning the kayak would be desireble
when surfing straight down a wave face and wanting to keep your options open
as which way to peal out just before the wave breaks.
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