i have an Impex kayak that has a fairly thick plastic skeg. the skeg is made of that type of plastic that white cutting boards are made of. i think it is solid polyproplene, or is it polyethelene. plastic anyways. it has never been perfectly straight, and it seems more bowed than ever.
does anyone else have this kind of skeg on their Impex? any warped? i’m not sure how this affects paddling, can’t really tell if it turns the boat at all, but i do feel the skeg adds significantly more drag on this boat than on my Valley.
Pat (ONNO) any ideas?
skeg
The skeg on my Assataeague is as flat as can be.
try the Impex Chat Board
You might better ask this question out on the Impex Chat board. Danny M. hangs out there.
http://www.impexkayak.com/chat/index.php
My Assateague Skeg is warped also
JBV,… The skeg was warped on my Assateague when I got it in April of '05. I have not noticed any problem with it causing the kayak to turn, but I don’t use the Skeg much. I deploy it down about 1" on calm wayer, just so I can be lazy about my strokes, and on windy days or rough water I use it as needed.
I did notice a lot of drag from it when deployed, so I took mine out of the kayak and modified it.
The front edge was just beveled a bit from the factory, so I filed it off to round the leading edge. I didn’t make it perfectly round, but more of a pointy round-off if you understand what I mean.
I then filed the trailing edge to more of a taper, to allow the water to flow off of it easier. You don’t want a pointy taper, as that can make it less effective (Too involved to explain). I tapered it about 1" forward of the trailing edge, and left the trailing edge about 1/8" thick, rounded slightly.
This modification did seem to help with less drag when deployed. I thought of making a thinner Skeg, out of straighter material, but this mod helped enough that I just never got back to working on it again.
I did comment to Danny with an e-mail direct to him, and his only comment was that I am too long winded in writing my e-mails.
Both…
my Mystic and Montauk have straight skegs. Impex has a good reputation for customer service - call Danny.
Would have to see it … no worries
to call if you want … can go over your paddle question too if you want : )
If the skeg looks straight but seems to be mysteriously getting snugger and snugger in the boat … the problem is probably in the cassette itself. … another long winded answer.
Synap[sised; the boat is getting older and shrinking … like some of us.
My hypothesis
Could it be that if a boat is cartopped on edge, and spends time in the hot sun that the skeg could get warped due to heat and gravity?
Jim
not in this case
my boat is cartopped in the usual fashion and it doesn’t get all that hot round here.
it’s a few years old, maybe Impex will still warranty it…
not mine…
Montauk and Currituck
I recall seeing a few Tempests
with significantly curved skegs and then some that weren’t, maybe Flatpick has some info?
Hypothesis challenged.
Oh well. THats what happend when uninformed opinion meets a fact! Hope you figure it out.
Jim
My T skeg
Tempest skeg is a little curved. So far it hasn’t bothered me. Maybe I should see if it is a problem when I deploy it, but I expect when I need it there will be far greater forces acting on the boat.
I couldn’t tell the difference paddling
but it was intersting and didn’t look right