Yes, Lightspeed. Here’s the rudder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBGONS0CRk0
This sums it up well…
This is a wonderful video where a top level kayak coach explains the pros and cons.
http://youtu.be/LhSiuY1T2zw
Mark Morrall
Morrall River Films
some earlier history
Skeg use became important in Greenland when guns started to be used instead of harpoons. The guns had to be retrieved from a waterproof bag and this took longer than simply raising a harpoon, allowing the kayak to veer off course. Skegs helped solve the issue.
According to H.C. Petersen, starting around 1867, Jens Reimer of Ilulissat first tried tying a long rope to the stern to aid tracking. He then tried using a board, shaped similar to a European rudder on the stern, but it got in the way of the high ends of the kayak. He then moved the skeg forward. Around 1870 the skeg was reshaped and placed where it is used today, and after 1884, the “kayak fin … began to be used every-where [in West Greenland]”.
Skegs are still very popular in Greenland today. Most are tied-on very securely. This allows the skeg to “dislocate” should you run aground, and it can be easily “snapped” back into place by a companion. I recently posted an image on my blog showing skegs used in the 2000 championship, at http://www.gregstamer.com/2012/04/22/techinques-to-avoid-broaching-in-greenland-kayak .
Greg Stamer
i like that rudder
Seems the best of both worlds.
Ryan L.
In other words…
Native paddlers managed to execute some pretty challenging moves hunting seals for a very long time without adding foot pegs or a turning device.
I’m not trying to start a fight about rudders. But I think this it is worth noting that the usefulness of a skeg was established long before modern upwardly mobile folks who can buy boats and dry suits costing four digits started debating this on a message board.
With your logic, we should go back
to steam engines, ice boxes, and victrolas. Weren’t they invented first?
jack L
More room in the Delta 17? HA!
It has humongous storage capacity. You will not miss the 20 square inches the skeg takes up. You can tour for a month in just about any Delta.
Did you demo the Delta 16?
I agree: rudder for longer trips
I appreciate the simplicity of a skeg for day trips in relatively calm water.
But if I were doing long day trips or touring on big water, I would want a rudder. While you CAN correct your direction with a skeg by leaning and changing your paddle stroke, this would be tiring if you had to do it all day, especially in a quartering sea and wind.
I had one kayak that didn’t seem to need a rudder in any conditions: the Old Town Cayuga 146 in Polylink 3. I was very dependent on the rudder until I learned to paddle properly. From then on I noticed that it was actually much easier to control the kayak in waves without the rudder, and the speed picked up considerably.
My Eddyline Journey is slightly skeg dependent in wind and I’m glad I have it. So it depends on the hull.
Both
I own and use multiple kayaks one with a skeg and the other a rudder.
Of course, I prefer to not use either due to drag but sometimes they are needed under certain conditions. I have found that I do prefer the rudder whenever I am in following seas, but both do the job when called upon.
There are so many variables in hull design and user preference that one cannot really argue absolutely in favor of either one. My only requirement for a rudder is that I still have solid foot pegs and the Smart Track rudder system gives me that capability.
Pick your poison as each has its strengths and weaknesses.
Whatever your choice, do not use them in lieu of learning proper paddling technique.
Rudder envy
My Sultan has a skeg. Sometimes I paddle with a single blade. That’s when I wish I had a rudder. I think a rudder could provide direction with less energy wasted than a correction stroke from the single blade.
~~Chip
FWIW Re. Windage. Some kayaks are also
– Last Updated: May-04-12 7:05 AM EST –
designed to be balanced WITH rudder up on deck. These same boats are also wonderful to paddle SANS rudder as a result.
A smoothly pivoting, FOILED blade rudder is less drag than a wagging, floppy, fixed skeg sitting in/ protruding from a giant hole under the hull..
Coming back to add ... IME, building, installing, and using both of above.
Didn’t get it
If you want to be picky, it could be argued that the most important technology of the Victrola didn’t get changed until CD’s, and maybe not even then because they still get read. The biggest part of that invention was the ability to capture sound on a disc - from the Victrola to the modern turntable all we improved was the motor and the quality of the components.
The steam engine is still around, at least its direct offspring. They are messing with steam locomotives in Europe and the steam turbine is the backbone of power generation for all nuclear plants. They just haven’t figured out how to make it work in cars, but if you poke around the internet you’ll find people are still trying to find a way to make a boiler that’ll be safe for a smaller sized vehicle.
You didn’t get what I said. I wasn’t saying something else couldn’t work as well, just that it was also not great to entirely dismiss something that has such a good track record. That is especially since most of us now don’t have time or skills on the water than hold a candle to what the Native people did in boats.
If someone wants to talk about the rudder as a modification of the skeg, it would work in the context of changing technologies. But that’s not what tends to happen. What we usually see is rudder versus skeg, as though these are so diametrically opposed that only one of them should be given any regard. That’s silly.
Whoa there
Campfires were invented before we had the assortment of other heating and cooking and lighting options available now.
Campfires came earlier but that doesn’t mean they are always inferior. And they sure are fantastic when those modern options are not available (like during an extended power outage at home, never mind while camping).