Good Evening,

There is one thing that has held me back from glassing my 19' Atlantic. Well, okay a few things... one is laziness, the other is it's been too nice out and I've been enjoying the outdoors, but the main one is that I'm terrified of glassing in that skeg that I made and am not totally sure about. All I did was deepen the aft stem kind of like the oystercatcher, but I'm afraid once it's all done I'll be wishing I had not messed with Eric's wonderful design. He may not allow me to ever order another plan again!

Tonight I had an idea that may be old news, and I'm sorry if it is. I was waxing down my surfboard and suddenly had the idea of using a surf board fin as a skeg. If you are not familiar with them, surf board fins fit into slots in the board and are wedged in with two allen screws. Because of the "build it yourself" nature of surf boards, you can buy all varieties of fins and inserts. Now they even have snap in fins that don't require the allen screws.

The surf board fins would be a bit deep for a skeg, but you could use the same idea and carve your own and have a removable skeg system: Big deep skeg for rough days, medium skeg for.. you guessed it... medium days, and even no skeg for flat days, or for meandering streams that require more maneuverability. You could even change fins... sorry.. skegs in the middle of the day if conditions changed.

So, I imagine I'm not the first to think of this. Has anyone tried it? I modified my Atlantic to add just a slight skeg because I intend to use it in deep water on long straight trips, but now I'm thinking about building up the bottom of the stern from inside with a small wood patch, cutting in a fin slot, and then experimenting with surf board fins, or shorter, longer versions thereof. You would have to be sure to coat the slot well with epoxy to prevent water seepage. Of course you would also have to ensure the slot didn't go all the way through (hey, it was worth mentioning), or cut it through for ease of fabrication and then glass over the slot on the inside.

Here is a link to a popular fin distributor, and a pic of a nice wood fin... hmmmmmmmm.....