Removable Skegs

[ICE]

Greetings,
I was just at the Pleasanton FF show last week and saw Dave Scadden's products. What I thought was interesting (other than the great product) was that he was offering removable skegs on his u tubes and kayaks. I was wondering if anyone had any experience in using them or rather installing them on other crafts and the added benefits of doing so. I've got a Creek Co. 12' toon that has gotten more lake time than river lately and it tracks like a drunk with an electric motor I was thinking of adding the removable skegs to it. That also make me wonder about my fish cat and doing the same. Any thoughts?

J. Ice

[Baja Fly Fisher]

I've used them on surf boards but never on a kayak. I know we use to adjust them for getting the right position for bottom turns.
I was looking at the one man kayak. A good price but I was wondering with bad knees if I would get stuck inside. The rubber aprons were attached to the kayak and not removeable. Almost bought one

[ICE]

I almost talked my Father in law into buying the 1 man kayak. What a great price (show special)! that thing only weighed in a 36 lbs +-. What surprised me most was the inflatable ridged bottom that was a lot stiffer than I ever would have thought Dave had said standing up in the kayak was not an issue it the the deformation of the ridged bottom was negligible.
Ice

[JayDubP]

I have used a single removable skeg on inflatable kayak/canoe and it helped when paddling solo on flatwater. Paddling tandem the skeg did not seem to add much. Scadden copied SeaEagle who has had removable skegs for years. Scadden's rockered boats have less pontoon on the water which means the boat turns easily- great for moving water but not so much on still water, so I can see Dave pushing anything to make them handle better.

My feeling is you'd have to use 2 skegs on a wide U pontoon or 2 separate pontoon craft. I do not think you'd be happy with them on a 12 foot inflatable with rockered ends.

Look at the hard plastic "Bullnose Rudder" that clamps/bolts onto a electric motor shaft... It was around $40 and is made by bullnoseproducts.com OR on a craft that long, maybe a real kayak rudder mounted forward of the propeller.
.
I used the Bullnose Rudder couple of year on a 9ft U inflatable & MinnKota 35 on stillwater. It worked and boat tracked well.

For motoring a long distance in straight line - put one (or both) oar pointing back, put the tip in the water and lash the oar down to side of boat... makeshift rudder. Just remember its in the water when you try to turn...

Jim

[ICE]

Brilliant! Thanks for the reply.
J. Ice