Bought my first kayak at a garage sale! I liked its light weight, fiberglass construction, and long length. Inside says: Borealis Kayak Works, Ann Arbor Michigan, Style: Ranger. Has a 4" aluminum skeg the owner put on to help him, but it is bent toward the left. Tried to get it off with hacksaw (partially done). Anyone know of this boat, and wouldn’t I want to remove this crooked skeg? -or better to have a slightly bend one than none at all?
Skeg might be useful on lakes and
open water. Maybe it could have been straightened, though if there is any residual bend, I wonder if it would come out of the skeg box smoothly.
If you’ve been sawing on it already, it might not be easy to reverse course. For example, the saw cut might catch weeds, and might make the skeg more liable to get bent again in a mishap.
skeg
The aluminum skeg is homemade and attached to the kayak with a bracket that he riveted to the hull. So there isn’t a skeg box. hmmmm…
Then I would remove it. A skeg that
can’t be retracted, and that can’t bounce out of the way when it hits an obstacle, is worse than a nuisance.
An alternative to sawing it off is to drill or cut the rivets or screws that attach it to the hull, and then plug the holes in the hull.
Wish I knew more about the kayak in question, but soon others will provide thoughts.
Yeah, drill the rivets n/m
drill the rivets n/m
yes, drilling the rivets would remove the entire bracket and return it to the original plain hull. What do you mean by n/m? what kind of place could do this work- or could I with some instruction?
drill the rivets n/m
yes, drilling the rivets would remove the entire bracket and return it to the original plain hull. What do you mean by n/m? what kind of place could do this work- or could I with some instruction?
n/m just means "no message."
Maybe not needed on some forums, but on others just a courtesy to let you know that there is no message inside after the subject line.
I take out rivets using a sharp drill bit. Bit should be somewhat larger than the center hole in the rivet. Drill with moderate pressure until the bit cuts through the rivet flange, and then when the flange drops off, the rest of the rivet will come loose inside the boat.
If you were here in Atlanta, I could glass over those rivet holes in a jiffy. Because you may not have an immediate way to do watertight closure of those holes, maybe you should just cut that skeg with your hacksaw, as close to the hull as possible, and wait until later to remove the skeg base and seal the holes. There are plenty of ways to seal the holes temporarily (tape for example), but glassing over is probably the best way to do it.
There used to be a fiberglass repair tape, pre-resined, that could be stuck on, and then it would cure in sunlight. Maybe someone knows where you can get it.