Looks like a tiny “Lee board” used in sail canoes and possibly kayaks .
Huh.
Nice.
The skeg is pretty tiny as the kayak (a Pygmy Coho) doesn’t need much help with weathercocking. But I still like the skeg as a sort of “cruise control” if I’m tired and the breeze picks up.
After reading these and pitching the topic around a few years “Kattenbo” has it right. It is a personal preference and the type of paddling you do effects the decision. Try shooting down a Texas river like the San Marcos after one of out “100 year” floods we have 3 times a decade and you will find yourself with fallen trees on one side and rocks on the other, a boulder in front of you and no place to stick a paddle to quickly turn the boat before you high center on the boulder. You find yourself very happy to step on the rudder peddle and turn the Yak enough to bounce off the boulder. Maybe you are like me and only get out 6 to 8 times a year and using 4 strokes to on one side of the Yak to turn while going 15 - 18 miles down twisting Buffalo Bayou in Houston make having a rudder a real pleasure for my shoulders. When they are not needed in straighter linger rivers like the Colorado or Brazos or lake paddling then just pull it up. Don’t buy in the weigh discussion at all as the weight is incremental compared to stuff I see people hauling in and on their boats.
One old guys opinion that paddling stokes are good to know but based on the type of paddling you do and the ability to paddle 15 - 25 miles a day on 65+ year old arms and shoulders make the use of a rudder a very positive experience for me!
Great article, thanks. I’ve paddled and raced for over 30 years in sea kayaks and wouldn’t do any ocean paddling without a rudder. If I don’t need it, it just stays on the deck. But when wind, waves and/or current pick up there’s no substitute. Being able to maintain a consistent and rhythmic paddling cadence is the key to keeping yourself moving fast and on track. I’ve never had issues with my rudder coming out of the water and even with thousands of miles paddling in all types of conditions I’ve never had a failure. I do carry an emergency kit to address any issues I might have but thankfully have never needed to use it. I’ve paddled skeg boats and IMO they just don’t have the full level of control that rudders offer. As we all know ocean conditions can change quickly and knowing my rudder is always there when needed helps enhance my paddling experiences. Two thumbs up for rudders!!
It depends on the style of boat…
The following opinion applies to long boats used in open water.
A skeg stops you from turning… and is useful in standard sea kayaks, off the wind, especially quartering, because they want to turn upwind. These boats tend to be easy enough to turn and don’t really need rudders. You may not use the skeg often, but if you are doing a long crossing off the wind, especially quartering, you will curse the day you don’t have it.
A rudder enables the boat to turn… And is not only useful, but absolutely necessary, in boats with surf-ski type hulls. These long (18 ft ++) boats are designed to go fast downwind, and need a rudder to turn upwind. A skeg on these boats is redundant, and In fact, this style of boat will never be sold without either an under hull or over the stern rudder.
Shorter boats benefit even more from a skeg to stiffen them up in off wind conditions conditions. A short sea boat without a skeg is really a play boat, or a toy. A short boat will usually turn quite easily, and does not need a rudder.
Bare boats in open water are for people who are not considering serious long distances or camping journeys. My two cents.
I do long haul paddling trips with camping gear. So for me I bought a 17.5 ft Tsunami.
I wanted a rudder, to address weather-cocking in the event that I’m crossing a big lake in wind. The boat having hard chines doesn’t seem to be affected too much by wind under 15 mph.
the reason I wanted a rudder, was simply to maximize storage space, I really didn’t want a skeg box taking up valuable cargo space.
Having said that I think I prefer a skeg, if cargo storage was not of issue. I’ve paddled other sea-kayaks, both with and without the hard chines, and find that generally I prefer the skeg. Mostly this is due to the pedals on a Tsunami, as I always seem to be fiddling with them to keep the boat tracking where I want in high wind. Perhaps if they had a system like Jackson Has I’d love the rudder more.
Seems to me that a rudder is a no-brainer on a surf ski, since they look difficult to turn without one. It makes just as much sense that whitewater kayaks should go smooth.
Having paddled sea kayaks of all three types (rudder, adjustable skeg, and smooth), I believe whether you choose a rudder or a skeg comes down mostly to personal preference. Either is fine, IMHO, though I prefer the skeg.
But having neither becomes a problem in strong wind, especially for weaker paddlers. You lose the ability to choose your direction of travel. There is no problem if you want to travel upwind. You can also do OK pointed directly downwind, as long as you are careful not to let your bow veer left or right. But try to paddle diagonally downwind and you will quickly end up perpendicular to the wind.
1 Like
There are/were kayaks produced for serious travel that had neither
1 Like
Paul Caffyn hacked off the ‘fixed skeg’ on his Nordkapp HM (see @roym’s picture for ‘fixed skeg’) and replaced with rudder travelling up the east coast of Australia with following (quartering) SE trade winds.
Just an anecdote.
But I will agree with previous comments, a lot depends on the person.
In Paul Caffyn’s case, he is a strong paddler, he utilized the swells quite a bit to go faster (pushed himself a bit for much extra speed).
I went up the north coast of Oz in the ‘trade wind’ season a few times. The first time with a ruddered boat (Arctic Raider). The rudder was ok, but I was not ok with fixing it several times (bent on various things), and once really got in trouble when I got flipped in surf, the rudder ‘semi-deployed’; due to heavy surf I did not want to go in to fix rudder, paddled whole day with rudder in bad position. In future trips, I used a (rope) skeg’d NDK Explorer. I’m a ‘slow’ paddler - did not necessarily want to ‘push’ myself to utilize the following seas. The skeg worked well for me. (and the ‘rope’ skeg was quite easily maintained)
(btw, my 1st kayak was a Nordkapp HM, I used to joke that it took me the width of Lake Superior to turn it)
1 Like
Quote from @raisins:
[Paul Caffyn hacked off the ‘fixed skeg’ on his Nordkapp HM (see @roym’s picture for ‘fixed skeg’) and replaced with rudder travelling up the east coast of Australia with following (quartering) SE trade winds.]
Reply:
Wasn’t the Nordkapp HM prone to lee cocking if not loaded carefully … anyone? If so, I wonder if that wasn’t part of Paul’s motivation for the modification.
Another quote from @raisins:
[In future trips, I used a (rope) skeg’d NDK Explorer. I’m a ‘slow’ paddler - did not necessarily want to ‘push’ myself to utilize the following seas. The skeg worked well for me. (and the ‘rope’ skeg was quite easily maintained)]
Reply:
I had an NDK Romany (classic) with a rope skeg. Like raisins, I found it very easy to maintain. Now I have a SKUK/NDK Explorer with a Karitek skeg, which has caused no problems. This version of the Explorer rarely needs the skeg. And I am likely a slower paddler than raisins … maybe even slower than molasses.
The picture I posted is that of my Nordkapp Jubilee. The one most people judge the HM on, is the earlier model . The Jubilee has almost 2 inches more rocker in the stern than the earlier Nordkapp did. Completely different kayaks. FYI ALL kayaks take careful loading to preform correctly, so that is no different for an HM than for any other kayak loaded to go for days. {balance point is important }
Yes, but rsevenic’s point was that it makes a difference whether the “uncarefully loaded” (or simply unloaded) kayak has a tendency to weathercock or a tendency to leecock.
A skeg can only cancel out weathercocking. It can’t cancel out leecocking. A rudder can cancel out both.
So if a kayak has a tendency to leecock unless you do a lot of effort to load it unevenly (more weight in the front), it may make a lot of sense to prefer a rudder over a skeg for that particular kayak.
I’ve never had to load my kayak front heavy {so it plows}. Interesting, in all the years of reading skeg vs rudder vs bare. I’ve never heard the argument for one preference over any other because of sloppy loading or improper seat placement. A first!
I feel that you have a strong desire to not stay neutral to this discussion. I am out.
"roym
I’ve never had to load my kayak front heavy {so it plows}. Interesting, in all the years of reading skeg vs rudder vs bare. I’ve never heard the argument for one preference over any other because of sloppy loading or improper seat placement. A first!"
I think the point was that the particular kayak was more finicky on the loading and I can see on a long trip where excessively particular loading and the time that could take might have caused someone to modify the boat and go to the rudder. Plus it was telling the story of what one guy did, not stating that this was a general rule of how to do things.
Personally I am not familiar with the boat so that is just from what I read above.
I don’t think the point was sloppy loading though but rather an extra five or ten minutes every time you pack up camp and continue down the coast being avoided by the changeup.
Well then…I have , here at my house 4 Nordkapp’s . One is a early model HMC, I have 2 Jubilee’s {one is the 3 piece sectional HM and the other is a HS with a skeg} and the 4th Nordkapp is a LV. {with a skeg} {this combination covers 4 different hulls with 3 different amounts of rocker both bow and stern, difficult to make blanket statements using the name Nordkapp}
I re read the entire thread, and still see that a poorly balanced packing job is not cured by a rudder, or a skeg, or a bare bottom…it’s still a poorly paced kayak
after the first day {on any multi day or multi week trip} The balance of the packing has been adjusted and packed the same way from then on…doesn’t matter whether rudder, skeg, or bare. {the kayak still needs it’s proper balance.
If a Kayak continues to be improperly packed day after day…sloppy packing and it will not be cured by which kayak helper you chose.
My understanding of the problem that Paul ran into was big waves and having to make adjustments all the time so he opted to install a rudder in order to steer
I hope this clears some of what I have meant, {I just pictured the 3 piece because the statement was made saying that for serious camping or expedition one would not chose a bare hull} and this is a serious expedition kayak. {no skeg box to take up pack-able space no rudder to depend on or skeg …neither to repair or maintain. and the hull always reacts the same. And designed to carry a load. This was the main expedition kayak produced by Valley for many years.
I definitely prefer skeg. And for the right reasons. First, my sciatic means that a foam bulkhead is necessary. Rudder pedals are not an option for my comfort.
Second, skeg boats look cooler. People tend to think you’re a good paddler if you have a skeg boat. If you wear the right clothing, you can definitely fool people into thinking you’re sponsored. And if you keep your mouth shut, they might think you’re British!
So skeg for me. Yes, I concede that rudders are more functional, less prone to failure, and easier on the body after a long day. But my sciatica says “no thanks” and my ego agrees!
My antidote:
I had my Nord LV lightly loaded on a day trip. Conditions deteriorated and set home directly into the wind. The boat kept getting blown off the wind to the point I turned and ran downwind to a beach where I could ballast the bow enough to head upwind.
Later that trip there was a rescue situation that i couldn’t help in do to instability.
That boat was over my head and soon to be sold.
That day I was never so happy to be with a small group of friends.
A little off topic, but the Nordkapps have a fascinating history. Some of it is recounted in:
http://www.ukseakayakguidebook.co.uk/nordkapp/art_nordkapp.htm
This also mentions Nick Crowhurst, who also modified the HM by removing the hull’s built in skeg and adding a deployable Karitek skeg. The various Nordkapps are beautiful boats, but I turn 79 this month and am unlikely to purchase one. Instead I’ll need a wooden boat for a proper Viking funeral.
1 Like