OK, I went to movie night at Riverside Kayak Connection and saw something which blew me away. And this was before the movie...
I showed it to KrazyKayak and he immediately agreed with me. We both thought we HAVE to do this right away...
I know it has happened to you. You start paddling and you want to deploy your skeg. Unfortunately it is jammed by sand or pebbles. You ask your paddling partner to help you unjam it.
P&H Seakayaks has come up with an ingenious answer to this problem. I first saw it on a P&H Capella 161. It is on other P&H composite boats as well. Brian and I looked but could find it on no other brand...
It's one of those ideas that is so simple, yet so brilliant, you look at it and immediately say to yourself: "Of course - I should have thought of that."
There is a roughed out diagram of the solution on my post on the RKC Board (I can't upload it here as I'm not a Paddling Perks member):
http://riversidekayak.com/board/index.php?topic=434.0
OK - My Fault - I forgot that attachments are only enabled for signed in members of that board...
Here is the diagram on Picasa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mushinzencat/SkegMod?feat=directlink
There’s no diagram there, either
I tried two different browsers and couldn't see it.
I hope this isn't just "drill a hole in the end of the skeg and tie a cord to it".
Ooops, Sorry
I honestly forgot that Attachments are only enabled for signed in members... Truly a mistake on my part...
I didn't think of that until reading BNystrom's post...
And Yes, that is what it is... I still think it is an excellent idea...
Here is the diagram on Picasa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mushinzencat/SkegMod?feat=directlink
Skegs on Eddyline . . .
. . . boats already come with the hole.
Thanx Walt…
Don’t think I checked any Eddyline skegs that fated night at the shop…
BTW - the movie they showed that night was “This Is The Sea 3”…
They billed it as TITS 3 - I’m sure some viewers were confused 
Nothing new really
Derrek Hutchinson suggested I do this to my Gulfstream back in 2000 when I bought it and my Nigel Foster Shadow by Seaward came with a small rope loop already installed.
Hole in Skegs
All my valley boats came with a hole in the skegs even my 1997 Pintail and I have a cord tied in all of them for this reason. it is a good thing to do.
It IS
kind of like re-inventing the wheel
"drill a hole in the end of the skeg
and tie a cord to it"
None of our three 2004 Brit boats (Valley Aquanaut, NDK Romany, NDK Explorer LV) came with a hole in the skeg for a line. I simply drilled a small hole in each and ran a line.
Both Celia's 2003 P&H Vela and my 2008 Valley Nordkapp LV came with holes already drilled.
It is also helpful to put some kind of indicator on the side of the hull as to where the skeg is located. I initially failed to do so on my Nordlow and a fellow paddler had a difficult time locating it to pull the cord to free the skeg.
maybe . . .
the brits were smarter than anyone thought. They put those clunky rope-skeg systems on their boats so your partner knows where to tug, when your bungie cord has broken. Eat that, cable-skeg advocates!
Skeg on skeg violence…
should not be condoned…
Save it for the rudder crowd
thank you for the tip
even if most have replied: "tell me something that I don't know"
and the ones that really did NOT, most times are too proud to admit that somebody else told them something that they did not know :-)
I am one of those that knew
I’m gonna . . .
. . . put an arrow on my stern with the label “Pull Here”. What a bunch of filty minded phucs!
true…
The reason I did not think to mark the skeg location on my Nordlow was that my Aquanaut and Romany (as well as Celia’s Explorer LV) are rope skegged and the location of the skeg is obvious. The 'kapp LV is my first boat with a slider skeg.
Total Recall
That scene was in Total Recal was it not?
They had to.
Those are the skegs most likely to jam.
OK You can fix them on the beach with a knife and some string… Or a hammer. LOL
I don’t recall that…
skeg location indication
A small triangle of red reflective tape on my Nordkapp LV to indicate skeg location.
Great idea!