Subject: [baidarka] Back to skegs for a minute
From: Phil Ellis (pcoellis@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Oct 20 2001 - 08:56:03 EDT
Brian,
On the skeg thing, your point is well taken on the leecocking effect a skeg
would have if the boat was ballanced in the first place, but wouldn't it
also improve directional stability under way? And wouldn't it tend to
prevent broaching on a following wave? Isn't that what the skegs are for on
surfboards?
H.C. Petersen notes (Skinboats of Greenland, pp.68-69) that experiments with
skegs (aka, steering fins) began in 1867 and that after the idea was
described in an 1884 magazine article by Lars Moller, their use became
widespread. Petersen says that the skegs were used to prevent the boat from
suddenly veering as the hunter was about to throw his harpoon, but doesn't
specify what the cause would be. It might be significant that this would
also have been around the time that rifle hunting from kayaks became
popular, and the magazine article mentioned above also described the rifle
holster and shooting screen.
Anyway, I'm curious about how they work and how much drag the lines produce,
and so on, and I can probably build one in less than an hour, so why not?
Somebody at the Delmarva had a strap-on rubber skeg (not sure I'd even tell
people I had something like that), but I didn't get a chance to try it out.
Don't know where they got it. I also have part of an old photo from
Skinboats in Greenland that shows a whole rack of West Greenland kayaks and
they all have skegs. I'll post it for the curious.
On the other hand, Harvey Golden and John Brand have both built boats
similar to mine, and neither one of them mentions the wind and wave problem,
so maybe it's just me.
Regards,
Phil
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