Dagger Meridian Skeg?????

Advice
#1

My skeg on my Meridian got really jammed up. I took it to my local shop to see if they could fix it/replace the cable.



They have never seen a skeg set up like this one. It is not clear how the cable attaches to the skeg blade. It appears just to go into the blade with no obvious attachments etc.



Can anyone tell me how the cable is secured within the blade / how to get the cable out?



thanks



Matt

#2

Can you take a photo of it…
…put it on an online photo service (such as Webshots) and post a link to it?

#3

you might try a heat gun
if it’s epoxied in.

#4

Meridian Skeg Repair
I repair one last week. What Dagger did was to just drill a hole in skeg and used a chisle to tighten up on skeg cable. What I did was to cut the old cable and drill it out. I drill down about another inch and then put in my new cable and took a chisle beating it in on both sides. This squeezed the cable real tight. It seems to work OK. Dagger did a real crappy job on these! By the way I contacted Dagger who said they had no replacement parts. I used 1/8" stainless cable from a local marine store. E-mail if you have more questions.

#5

Addressing first things first…
How did it jam ?



What happened with the gelcoat ? Just wondering.

#6

well…

– Last Updated: Apr-22-05 11:44 AM EST –

I am not sure how it jammed. I had not paddled for about 10 days (rare for me) and once I got in the water I went to put it down and it would not budge. I got out and got a pair of pliers and attempted to pull out the skeg from the skeg box while the boat was still in the water with the intent of then working it up and down while submurged to get out any grit that might be jamming it up, but that did not work either. It was really stiff and was very hard to put up and down even with pliers. Not sure what happened to it. After all this though I am sure that I did end up kinking the cable so it needs to be replaced for sure.

For the gel coat.....the boat was damaged in shipping. It has some repair work to be done on it now that will require some refinishing after the repair.

I can't post a picture right now as the boat is at my local shop at this time. If they still can't figure it out after I provide them with the input received here so far then I will take a picture of it and post.


Matt

#7

cable attachment
The skeg cable on my Meridian looks like it is soldered to the skeg.



I assumed that both skeg and cable would need to be replaced, although I haven’t spoke to Dagger about it.



I have a wave in the cable that is annoying, but not bad enough to replace everything.

#8

An alternative to staking the cable
Instead of staking it in place, drill a second hole at an angle to the cable hole and tap it for a stainless set screw. That will allow you to secure the cable, but still be able to remove it easily for replacement.