One of my boats is a Dagger Crossover 12.5. Granted, it is neither a very good flatwater nor an adequate technical whitewater boat. But it is wonderful for chasing down rivers and streams with short Class I-III whitewater stretches, with flatwater in between.
The major design flaw is the SKEG. It is either up or down; attached with a single bolt. (Other Crossover owners/pilots will understand the situation.) Has anyone modified this primative skeg with one that could be raised and lowered from the cockpit?
I have a couple of ideas, but I'm not an engineer. And I hate reinventing the wheel...
George in Cody
Added 9/19: Yes, this is the same boat as the Perception Enduro.
I’m surprised. I thought somebody would have come back with an ingenious solution by now. As far as I know, the Perception Enduro (still in production) kept the same setup. What about finding a longer bolt with the same diameter and pitch, then using a sea kayak rudder? You’ll have to immobilize the pivoting feature some how though. You could probably make a drop down skeg like this out of a pulley and bracket, some lexan or PE for the foil, about 10-12’ of perimeter line and a pad eye and screws. Any other tinkerers want to build on this?
I spent a couple of months trying to design a skeg like you describe for my Crossover. Never did come up with a good solution although I did improve upon the fixed version using a SS bolt and a Lexan blade.
How did you make the Lexan blade? Did you duplicate the stock outline? Make it longer/deeper? I have toyed with this idea; and I keep trying to figure out a spring-loaded / over center mechanism; so maybe I could just turn around and whack it with my paddle…???
I made the new blade about 1.5" deeper as the boat has a lot of volume and I don’t!
I also carved a pair of shims for the channel where the bolt goes in. This was to remove most of the lateral play the stock system had. I just glued them into place with contact cement.
The new blade really anchored the stern which was nice when I had a long return upriver in windy conditions.
Good luck on your project and let us know how it goes.