Design consideration...
Posted by: Celia
on Jan-28-13 2:08 PM (EST)
Yes, it still goes to the designer's intent. My first sea kayak really was intended to work with a rudder even in its stowed position - it was part of how that hull was planned to deal with wind. Since I found the rudder to be a PITA for my own purposes and always ended up taking it up again, that meant a different boat when I decided that I'd rather be living with a skeg. So I got a boat that was designed with a skeg in mind.
QCC tends to offer a choice of either on their boats, which can muddle the point for newbies that a given hull is often designed with an assumption about whether rudder or skeg. So we end up talking about these things artificially, as though you can take any hull and successfully pop one off and the other on. But for some boats that can be a fairly bad idea - if you want the hull to behave you really have to get the device that normally comes with it.