Rope skeg modification

[John Leonard]

I have had it out three times now and can say that the skeg drops much more reliably since the quick fix.

If you have a boat with arope skeg you know that getting the skeg to come down is often a crap shoot. Sometimes it will drop, but allot of times it seems to hang up mysteriously. It seems to be worse on the valley boats that have the bungies coming out of the hole and heading back toward the stern.

I took a loop of 2mm cord, tied it in a loop and replaced the skeg bungie with it. I then ran a heavier bungie through the loop and back to the fitting at the stern. It gives the lines running through the hole a bit more room and the cord has allot less friction than the bungie.

Probably easier to just take a look.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/357268...357282192HnBzfs

http://community.webshots.com/photo/357268...357283532LyNGOQ

John

[Brian Nystrom]

This is one of the more clever modifications of a rope skeg I've seen. I'm definitely going to try it on my Pintail. BTW, if you can find some cord with a Spectra sheath, the extra slipperiness (is that a word?) would be beneficial.

BTW, you forgot to mention the picture of your latest hull "modification". This one is not quite so clever! ;-)

http://community.webshots.com/photo/357268...357287223gmcURH

[Jed]

John,

I did a simialr thing by relocating the shock cord's tie-off so that the pull-up line has a bit more room to move. No problems since the modification.

I like your mod. It makes a lot of sense to reduce the friction by using a smaller single cord to deploy the skeg.

Cheers,

Jed

[Suz]

John,

Thanks for posting the good info. I can't wait to modify my skeg and hope to find the mysterious leak in my rear hatch of the explorer.

Suz