: Beautiful job of combining designs John :) As long as we are
: talking skegs I have a question. Rather than installing an
: adjustable skeg several forum members have said they installed a
: permanent skeg approx. 1" to 1-1/2" deep and 16"
: to 20" long and that was all they needed to control yaw in
: their boat.

Yes, such a fix should prevent windcocking, IF you get the area right. Or it may be too small in some situations and
still weathercock. There again it may be too big in some situations and cause leecocking. One thing for sure is that
it will make your boat less maneuverable.

Skeg adjustability gives you two boats in one. A maneuverable sports car type and a straight line sedan type.
Not having any adjustability is like playing golf with only one club, not much fun.

One day I found myself overworked and not gaining much distance while paddling with skeg up in high wind. Skeg
down was easy and I could apply my energy to forward motion. So I ran an experiment to check out how useful my
skeg was.

I started paddling away from the wind, just paddling with no course corrections of any kind. With the skeg up I
was turned straight into the wind in forty seconds. I immediately did the same thing with skeg down and was
turned straight upwind in 300 seconds, almost four minutes. Just sayin'.

: I personally don't like the thought of 8" to
: 12" of skeg sticking down under my boat looking for
: something to snag but I do want a retractable skeg. I have been
: trying to come up with a design that would lower a longer,
: flatter portion of the skeg into the water so I get the same
: surface area of skeg without the extreme depth.

: Question is; is this practical ?Is there a design already that I
: don't know about or has it been tried before and didn't work ?

Yes, this has been done as is very successful. It has been used for decades whereas the "foiled" shape is fairly new.
This link shows a clear picture of the "pie slice" type adjustable skeg. http://www.ukseakayakguidebook.co.uk/skeg_repair/art_skeg_repair.htm
Notice that it is a little shorter and deeper than the permanent skeg you describe in your first paragraph above, but
it is the same basic idea only with adjustability.

I am a forgetful old fart and leave my skeg down when I shouldn't more often than I will admit, and although I get
pushed sideways into coral or rolled up the beach I have always found my skeg to be self-retracting, not broken. With
my paddling style I don't think the foiled type would last very long.

~Bob