2005 Capella 166 skeg issues

Hi I am looking for a photo of what a full skeg extension looks like for my P & H Capella 2005. It wasn’t tracking well.

Thank you!

Skeg

– Last Updated: May-19-14 8:55 PM EST –

I have that boat although I have not paddled it in a few years. I feel that it does want to "weathercock" (turn into the wind) quite a bit. Can you be a little more specific about what is going on with your situation? The skeg is either fully retracted in the box, fully extended out (about 3 inches at the rear of the skeg blade), or somewhere in between. It will "wobble" a little on its pin but in general it is in line with the keel.

I assume you mean the boat wasn't tracking well when you were paddling it. What where the conditions you were paddling in? How strong was the wind? What direction was it coming from? Skegs are not there to "track" your boat per se. The skeg is there to keep it going relatively straight in a wind that is hitting you from the side. To simplify the issue, in that situation the bow of your boat wants to turn into the wind. The skeg helps keep that from happening. In reality it is the job of the paddler using corrective strokes (like a sweep stroke) along with proper boat edging to keep the boat going in the direction you want it to. If you are having trouble keeping the boat going straight in a side wind then your problem is almost certainly not your skeg. Pay a little more attention to your forward and sweep strokes as well as how you are edging the boat during each stroke.