Sand in skeg Tempest170

I am new to kayaking and did a beach landing in my Wilderness Systems T 170,got so sand in the skeg box.I rinsed it out and after some work pryed it open with a screw driver.Drilled a hole through the skeg and put a string on it,so i can pull open if it gets stuck again,but it is still very gritty and hard to open.What is the best way to free up cable so it will open and close like it did before.Love this site and appreciate the help. Ian

SKeg stuck
Rinse the heck out of it. You should be easily able to slide the skeg back and forth by hand. If it moves easily by hand (particularly down) but not by cable, take a look at the cable and fittings (in rear compartment) to see if something is askew. Alot of times trying to overpower the stuck skeg damages the rigging.

yep
If after a heavy duty douching you still get a ‘gritty’ sounding cable and it’s reluctance to slide is usually a slightly bent skeg wire. if you forced it at all when it was jammed you might have bent the cable. even a slight bend/tweak will cause problems.



replace/repair is straightforward but technical.



I am getting ready to post a detailed instruction over on the tempestowner forum. If you haven’t joined yet, you may want to!



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TempestOwners/



steve

Sand…

– Last Updated: Nov-22-07 10:39 AM EST –

Avoid beach landing if at all possible. If you are pulling a skeg boat up on shore lift the stern and pull it up stern first.

Always amazes me when people run boats up on shore when they don't have to.

I treat all boats, including roto, as if they were high end carbon.

No you don’t.
you treat all your boats that way.



everyone elses is fair game.



:slight_smile:



paul

Rinse skeg box out while boat is in
normal orientation ( hull down )with a hose.



Move or have someone move the blade up and down as you keep the water flushing … no need for high pressure, volume is good here.



If you are only at the beach, wade the boat back out to deeper water and pump the stern up and down while moving the skeg throughout its full range.



Above is always a good idea to do before shuting the boat down too, just in case something got up in there.



Launch backwards off the beach and do net let boat sit in the little rollers that are right there before you launch or when you come in … the little bit of silt kicked up can load up the box pretty quick.



If its stuck, the cable is not going to force it, try grab first and leave the slider to do little micro movements to break it loose rather than heavy handed force.