Sea Kayak Skeg repair

A helpful person dragged my kayak up a beach, unfortunately this resulted in my skeg becoming jammed with lots of gravel from the beach, which were exactly the right size to wedge between the skeg and the sides of the pocket in which it sits (ie the skeg box). A knife was used to prize out the gravel and the cord attached to skeg for this very purpose was pulled to release it. In fact it was pulled so hard that the skeg broke.

The skeg had broken where it attaches onto the spindle.

I had recently "helped" to repair a skeg on a Club boat. It was neccessary to replace the string that connects the skeg to the slider bar that controls it. I discovered that pushing a bit of string up the tube that connects the skeg to the slider was near impossible, the string, or I suppose I should call it a cord, was too flexible to push. In the end we cut the tube so that the cord only had to be pushed half the distance, then taped the tube up again when the job was finished,

Due to this problem I was glad to discover that my kayak, a Norse Idun, had a metal cable. While these may be susceptable to kinking and corrosion (seawater is really corrosive) they are much simpler to install.

Damaged skeg with cable attached and the string used to pull down the skeg when jammed. The string proved pretty strong, stronger than the skeg.

First step was to unscrew the two screws holder down bits of plastic that held the slider tube in place. A slight complication was that these are "star" or "Torx" screws with a six-pointed star shaped recess in the top of the screw. A compatible Torx screwdriver is needed. Undeneath the tube it was easy to see the screw holding the cable in place.

After unscrewing and removing the two plastic caps holding the slider bar in place, the slider bar can be lifted out to reveal the screw holding the cable in place. 

The cable of the new skeg was fed through the hole on the inside of the skeg box and pushed through until it exited the slider control. The new skeg was then manipulated onto the spindle inside the skeg box. After pushing the skeg in the cable was cut such that it would reach the end of the slider. A proper cable cutter was used to ensure the end of the cable did not fray. The cable was then attached to the slider mechanism by tightening the relevant screw. Finally the slider bar was put in place and the plastic end pieces attached to hold everything together. Watching the skeg go up and down as I pulled the slider back and fore proved that the repair was successful.

As a final step I needed to attach some string to the new skeg so that (gentle) force could be used to pull it down if it became jammed. The skeg came provided with a small hole, although the size of string that would go through it would be very thin and not so easy to pull on. Consequently I tied a loop of 1.18 mm string, actually called micro-cord, through the hole in the skeg. To that I attached a short length of bright orange 4 mm paracord, which would be easy to see and pull on. Finally I melted the ends of all the cords with a lighter to stop them fraying. I thought it looked neat but we will see if it lasts.

Cord attached to the skeg so it can be pulled open if it jams.

Special thanks for Max for helping on this (i.e. doing most of the work). 

See also my attempt at repairing a hole in my boat.