> I just took my Pygmy Artic Tern out for a 2 week excursion and was very
> happy with its performance, but when I got even the slightest wind the
> stern would start going around. What really set it off was the combination
> of wind and waves. I had a 3 mile crossing in one area that was so bad
> that I had to canoe stroke on one side the whole way. My question is,
> would a skeg work as well as a rudder in these conditions, I know a rudder
> would work but I don't like the weight and my foot braces moving. Thanks,

A few words on rudders/skegs: I think a rudder is for manouvering, a skeg is not. A skeg is only for balancing the effects of wind and waves, and it works great. With a skeg, you can balance the weathercocking tendency of your boat by lowering/sinking the skeg just a wee bit - to perfection. The only situation when a skeg won't give you a perfect straight tracking line, is when there is a current - due to rivermouths or other - that is not "in line" with wind and waves.

The Inuits put skegs on their later kayaks. If they had thought a rudder was better, they would have made one.

Of course, the Inuit kayaks were hard chine kayaks. With a hard chine, a rudder is absolutely superfluous. When tipped, a hard chine boat will turn around quicker than any rounded-hull kayak with a rudder. My kayaks have hard chines.

The skeg works great both for bow winds/waves and for following seas. You need to put more skeg into the water for following waves. With a bow wind you only need a little bit of skeg in the water to make your boat track absolutely straight. No more strain on one arm only. When don't I employ the skeg?: When I need to turn the kayak quickly; catching surf, or dealing with waves from those hooligan diesel powered brutes in narrow canals - and when I'm in a narrow part of water with no wind.

You may have gathered I'm a skeg fan. All the same, I'm presently building an own-designed hard-chine kayak without one: I'm giving this boat a sort of "fixed-rudder stern", like some Pygmy boats, only more of it, almost like a baidarka stern. I'd like to know if a beamy, hard-chined kayak with lots of hull spring will track straight in wind with this sort of stern - and still have it's turning abilities intact when tipped. But: the fine-adjustment to side wind/waves I can do with the skeg,won't be available..

So: I've already begun to study the plans I found at this bulletin board not long ago, for an underdeck-controlled skeg, with the thought of retrofitting it into my new boat as soon as I've concluded a non-skeg-kayak is a poorer kayak.

Yea to skegs, nay to rudders, and keep up the hard chine!

Øivind