Paddled my Approach for the 3rd time this weekend. All and all, I have been pleased with this boat. However, I am disappointed with the skeg. I had to remove mine completely while floating this weekend because it became unfunctional and stuck in the engaged position. The housing that holds the wheel in that lowers and closes the skeg is stripped and I think maybe unfixable. It is nothing more than indentations in the polyethlene to hold everything in place. Poorly designed IMO. There needs to be something more substantial holding this thing in place. I have bumped it a few times on rocks but nothing that should have damaged it this bad. <br />
Anyone else had a similar problem or have any ideas about whether this is fixable or not? I am disappointed as the skeg is a nice feature to have for the type of water I float. The boat is still usable and I think will be fine on the moving water but the flat stretches are kinda tough without it.<br />
If it is unfixable, the next question is what to do with the hole in the bottom of the boat that the skeg came out of? Any thoughts of if I should try to fill this in with something or just leave it alone?Contact The Dealer
where you bought it from and ask for a fix. A reputable dealer would try to make it right by you. Doesn’t help his business to have folks complaining about a product.
sing
same problem on another one
this is a problem common to the Approach and I knew about it before I bought the boat based on reviews and comments in other threads here on p.net. The “axle” that the skeg pivots on is simply two protrusions of the hull, with the skeg squeezed in between. Very poor design, no doubt about it. So far mine works okay. My friend’s came loose but she was able to fix it. I’ll look at this afternoon and see if I can offer any suggestions for a fix.
The dealer has a used Approach sitting in their shop with the same problem. I haven’t talked with them recently about it, but hopefully by now they have a solution. It’s worth giving them a call. This boat is selling well for Dagger, so hopefully they’ll fix the problem.
Andy