Thanks, Kilroy. Good to know. Nice to have ended up with both and the opportunity to compare with one boat.
Thanks Sparaa. Nice to hear that you enjoy your Delta and only use the rudder when conditions require it.
Thanks Kanoniem. Kayaking for fitness is very desirable. Can’t think of a more enjoyable way.
This is why I like skeg boats. Too much checking where is the rudder. A good sweep stroke usually gets me back on course with less thinking about what the rudder is doing.
Does your car wheel have a click or do you look if it’s centered going down the road or turning?
Rudder just needs to be sending you where you’d like to go or making the hull respond.
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Sure, but in a car you aren’t making repetitive muscle motion for hours on end, potentially in an unbalanced way leading to pain down the road.
To me it has zero to do with knowing exact position of rudder. You know the direction you are going and use the rudder accordingly.
Most times with wind or currents your rudder won’t be centered to go straight to your chosen destination.
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Agree PaddleDog52. Compare two charts under similar condition. On one trip, focus was on paddling, while letting the wind push the boat around, using corrective paddle strokes alone. The other trip focused on what I’ll describe as mico edging, by looking straight ahead and sensing when to make small edging corrections combined with paddle stroke.
You can see how the same boat reacts to different contol techniques. I don’t look at the track until the end of the trip, but you can see the outgoing and return track virtually overlap, despite attacking the wind, waves and tides from different angles.
The 145 Tsunami has plenty of mass above the waterline to catch wind, but the hull designed with minimal rocker enables it to track straight without a rudder. Only a few times, I wish It had a rudder. The 125 is easy to control without, but at times, the 175 can be a monster to control without resorting to the rudder. I always unlatch it before going out, just in case its need. Some complain that the foot pegs and rudder control are the same. That never bother me, but I can understand how it could be a problem under certain conditions. Also understand how a kayak with rocker, like the Tempest, could benefit from a skeg.
Just like driving a car look forward and make corrections. Same should be true using a rudder. I use to use a range to keep on track. I’ve since learned to look ahead and make corrections based sensor of what’s around. Not suggesting it would work without reference points on an open sea.
My car steering wheel does self center. And it tracks a straight line very well. I believe some OC1 outrigger rudder self center. Why don’t kayak rudder self center?
Good point, but that means you have to adjust the caster? On a kayak, the water flowing past essentially does that. Isn’t that done with a sailboat, by the shape of the rudder and by the rake in the way its mounted to the transom?
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This is my own subjective opinion and does not compare the functionality of skeg vs. rudder whatsoever, but I find skeg boats more aesthetically pleasing to the eye than the rudder boats. To some extent both the skeg and rudder are somewhat unattractive mechanical contrivances, but the skeg is more hidden.
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Makes sense to me.
You don’t hold the car steering wheel going down a straight road?
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Because your feet are holding it in position?
Because they aren’t in fast enough water?
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Nothing holds my outboard motor in the center either. 
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Agree.
I almost never use my rudder as my boat generally tracks very well. Don’t recall having used it this year. However, with a strong stern quartering wind, I gain up to ½ mph as measured by GPS by using the rudder as opposed to attempting to maintain course by edging or corrective strokes alone. I suspect the gain in speed would be comparable with a skeg.
Appearances don’t matter much to me, but performance does. I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
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Good point rstevens15.