: Totally depends--if you find the boat's maneuverability frustrating to the
: point of annoyance, add the skeg. I certainly won't ridicule you for it.
: If you really want a nice forward stroke, keep the boat clean and work on
: your technique--this a wonderful boat that will offer you lots of
: feedback.

Really, a retractable skeg is a useful thing - but not for going in a
straight line - that depends on learning a (quite small amount of)
technique. Try paddling a highly rockered whitewater slalom canoe on
flat water to start to get the feel of counteracting a turn before
it even becomes visible. After that, any sea kayak will feel to be
stuck on a tramline !

What a skeg is really useful for is compensating for the effects of
wind and trim. A well-trimmed kayak (ie. one where the gear fore and
aft is nicely balanced) will tend to turn up to face the wind. The
stern is more prone to be pushed round by the wind than the bows.
If you want to go upwind, this is just fine. If you want to go down
wind or across the wind, it can be frustrating, as you constantly
need to correct. But by lowering the skeg, the sterns resistance to
sideways movement in the water is increased. The same kayak with the skeg fully dropped will tend to turn downwind, as the bow is now more easily
drifted round than the stern. To go across the wind, there will always
be a position for the skeg where the effects balance out and your kayak
will go just the direction you want. Having the skeg leaves you free
to use the paddles or a certain amount of lean to make *changes* in
direction, just as you would if there were no wind. If you don't have
a skeg, you can achieve the same effect by loading heavier gear in the
aft hatch - but this is difficult to change at sea, so a skeg is more
useful if your desired direction to the wind will change during your
journey - as it usually will unless you are making some huge long
crossing :-)

But remember, anything with moving parts is vulnerable to failure, so
learn to use your kayak without the skeg or rudder, even in wind and
waves - think of the skeg as a way to save a bit of effort and
concentration rather than as the only way to keep in the right
direction to get home !

Andy