“I first saw the Hydro Skeg at the Birmingham Outdoors Show in March 2006. Geoff Turner, its designer and manufacturer, had rigged up a display where you could compare the action of the Hydro Skeg alongside wire and rope operated skegs. It was no contest! The Hydro Skeg had a much smoother and more controllable action both in deploying the skeg and retracting it.

I have kinked the skeg wire on every boat I have owned and it is a real hassle if you are away on a trip. The kink usually happens in the unsupported flexible wire that is exposed above the skeg when it is in the down position. If there is any resistance in the cable run, the wire can kink preventing the skeg from retracting. Kinks can also happen if the wire is exposed at the cockpit slider. If a pebble jams the skeg, an unsympathetic paddler can bend the wire by forcing the slider. I am not going to say anything about rope skegs other than that they are somewhat less desirable than wire skegs and midges. In comparison, the Hydro Skeg works so smoothly and never requires lubrication. If you hit the bottom with the skeg, it just retracts and the slider moves smoothly into the up position ready to redeploy the skeg.

At the same time as the show, my wife had begun to venture out in stronger winds in her Rockpool Alaw Bach. This boat is not fitted with an adjustable skeg and at Alison’s skill level, she found it sometimes weather cocked. I decided to investigate the possibility of fitting a Hydro Skeg. A few weeks later saw me driving into the Ayrshire countryside to Kari-Tek’s base near rural Coylton. The first thing that struck me was that the well stocked Kayak Byre is just a part of a large engineering business that manufactures everything from roof rack carrying systems to kayak and mountain bike trailers to whole saw mills!

Geoff showed me the DIY Hydro Skeg fitting kit. This can be used to replace an existing wire or rope skeg in just about any GRP or polyethylene sea kayak or it can be fitted to boats without a skeg. The slider mechanism is connected to a hydraulic cylinder from which two separate pipes (to deploy and retract the skeg) run back to the skeg box. The fluid is a mixture of water and antifreeze. Geoff also supplies Hydro Skegs to Sea Kayaking UK who fit them as an option on their new kayaks. Geoff told me about his local professional fitting service, which I signed up for on the spot!

One week later, I picked up the Rockpool with its newly fitted Hydro Skeg. The standard of finish was immaculate. The edge of the new skeg slot in the hull had been finished with a small rubbing strip and the slider had been neatly mounted on the port deck between the seam line and the cockpit rim. I had been concerned in case the slider might affect the Rockpool’s outstanding ergonomic knee position. I need not have worried, it was sited well out of the way and the two hydraulic pipes led back through the day hatch (it was neatly sealed) to the stern compartment and the skeg box. This is a cassette unit that Geoff manufactures for Sea Kayaking UK. Here the first compromise of fitting a skeg to the Rockpool became apparent; the skeg box restricts the carrying capacity of the rear compartment. However, we use the Rockpool as a day boat and so were not concerned about this.

We left Geoff’s workshop and headed straight for a weekend on the Solway. When I arrived the tide was just coming in and there was a force 3 to 4 offshore wind blowing. Just the sort of conditions my wife had been bothered with weather cocking. The Rockpool Alaw Bach is a great rough water play boat and in that role does not need a skeg. However, if you are using it on longer crossings, with the wind from the rear quarter, then it does weather cock. A skilled paddler will compensate by edging, using intermittent stern rudder strokes and sliding the paddle shaft to the upwind side for more leverage. This can get tiring and less skilled paddlers might appreciate a skeg. That night I discovered that the Hydro Skeg transformed the Alaw Back for my wife, but I also benefit from it. The Rockpool can be trimmed to paddle straight, using varying amounts of skeg, regardless of wind strength or direction. I found I have never had to use the standard Hydro Skeg in the fully down position in the Rockpool and I note that the skeg now supplied as an original fit by Rockpool is smaller than the Hydro Skeg.

I have now used the Hydro Skeg for nearly a year. It has been to the Mull Storm Gathering, the Solway, the upper and lower Firth of Clyde and lots of places in-between, it’s even been through the Corryvreckan! During that time, its mechanism has worked faultlessly and it has made the Rockpool’s handling more versatile for my wife. On one occasion I jammed the skeg with a small pebble and the slider refused to budge. Once I had freed the pebble, the mechanism worked faultlessly. Geoff has fitted a small balance valve into the system, in case the slider ever does not fully retract or fully deploy the skeg. To use it, you push the skeg fully up by hand, open the valve and move the slider to the up position then close the valve. I have never had to use it. The boat has been used in innumerable practice wet rescues when the day hatch and stern hatches have remained totally dry.

A friend, who also has an Alaw Bach, had a shot in my boat and the very next day took his to Geoff for a Hydro Skeg to be fitted. He has no regrets either. All in all, the Hydro Skeg is a really excellent bit of kit and I recommend it highly. One day all skegs will work this way!”

Test and review carried out by Douglas Wilcox.
Paddles magazine, June 2007

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