I just got a real pretty Dagger Meridian (used, of course). I was familiar with the skeg cable problems on those and was prepared to replace the cable if need be, but the problem is the sheathing is missing a piece just as it comes out of the slider box inside the cockpit and the cable wants to coil up there (inside the cockpit) rather than exert enough pressure to put down the skeg. It seems the sheathing needs relacing…looks complicated to me what with all the sealing between compartments, etc. Anybody have any good old fashioned experience to help out? Thanks!
replacing housing
I have fabricated my own skeg and therefore I have installed the housing (sheeting) in one of my kayaks.
The factory housing is lousy and often sticky (on other kayaks of mine). On this one I used HDPE stiff high pressure hose (used for compressed air) with brass fittings. Never had a smoother sliding skeg, that never ever jams.
This is your chance to get a skeg working like no other factory skeg does.
Source some housing and fittings from a shop that sells compressed air tools. Remove the existing sheeting and goop in the new one with polyurethane (much better than silicon).
For pictorial info on my job: http://gnarlydognews.blogspot.com/2009/02/shop-kayak-mods-fabricating-skeg-box.html
The sheathing does not need to be
continuous. If you are missing (or its broken) just inside the cockpit area you can just add the piece of sheathing in that area. As long as the gap between the old sheathing and the new sheathing is small enough that the cable will not kink out you should be good to go. If it is a fairly short section you probably could get away without even removing the cable. Just slit some tubing and put it over the cable. Then glue the tubing to the inside of the hull with the slit side up against the hull so it can not open and let the cable out. This would eliminate the need to remove the cable or feed any new sheathing through a bulkhead.
Good luck
Mark
sheathing
I sure appreciate the responses…I’ll go with the simple idea for now and when there’s time I think I’d like to try the whole new system…thanks!
An extra caution
If you use the slit tube method be sure and run a narrow piece of tape over the slit before glueing so that you do not get glue inside the tube and wind up glueing the cable to the inside of the tubing.
Mark