Protecting and strengthening a rudder, lacking a long keel
On a full-keeled sailboat such as a Colin Archer, the skeg is the aftermost and deepest part of the deadwood, or that part next to the sternpost. It’s the projecting end of the keel upon which the rudder is stepped.In fin-keel designs, the skeg is a detached vertical projection, usually triangular in shape, beneath the after end of the shallow hull. The skeg has several functions: it supports the rudder, it provides lateral resistance, and, like the feathers on an arrow, it gives a boat directional stability. The word skeg comes from the Icelandic skaga, a promontory or headland—something that projects or juts out.A rudder hung from a skeg is stronger than a spade rudder that depends entirely on its projecting stock for strength, and offers better protection to the rudder when the boat runs aground or dries out. A skeg-hung rudder will not stall as readily as a spade rudder, and tends to hold a steadier course because it will center itself when left alone, rather than take a small “lead” to port or starboard as a semibalanced spade rudder will do.A short, partial keel on a powerboat is sometimes called a skeg. In the Sea Bright skiff design that developed a century ago along the Jersey Shore, for example, a boxed skeg begins about amidships and runs aft, even as the hull body sweeps up. With its flat bottom and hollow interior, the boxed skeg supports the skiff when it dries out between tides, and allows the single engine to be
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