That first cut is the deepest

And the absolute hardest to work yourself up to.

Everything is in place, and I am welding (or is melding a better term,,,,  hmmm???) Things closed.   And checks are straight forward: Look for pinholes of light, seal ’em up.  Then later fill the compartment with water and watch for leaks. 

And that tube seen in the slider box, that gets trimmed after I get the insides sealed up,  and I will put the slide button on the rod that moves through there.   So far, its stiff, but moves freely, no binding felt.  When I go for final assembly,  I’ll lube the tube with some silicon grease.  Don’t wanna mess with sealers or anything before hand

So just what the heck is a skeg anyways???   Well, boats fall into three classes of handling, ((WIde brush strokes here,,,))  Weather, Neutral, or Lee helmed.   They are going to want to point into the wind, downwind or ignore the wind.   In Kayaks, (I have no experience in much else) the front cutwater ‘locks’ the bow of the boat into a direction,,,  The stern is a little freer to move around and in stiff breezes abeam, or following waves/current, the boat will tend to wander off course trying to point ‘upstream’.   The Skeg balances the ‘pivot point’ and helps the boat stay neutral in heading.  In some smaller sailboats, I know they have dagger boards that do the same thing, and I have seen on sailing rigged canoes, a dagger board that could be deployed mounted on the gunnels.   BlueJean is a touch weatherhelmed (not as bad as some, but noticable enough) and she definitely dislikes following seas (waves from the aft quaters)   This skeg will alleviate that.   Being deployable and adjustable, I can balance the pivot point from the bow of the boat to somewhere closer to my hips, and that puts control back on me, not the weather.

and in a small way, it will make her faster,,, I won’t need to correct her by paddle so much and focus on power delivery more. I don’t think its going to be so much that she becomes my race boat, but she won’t wear me down as fast either.