Kayaking is a big thing in most areas with water reserves like rivers, shallow water lakes, and oceans. However, when you think about kayaking, it is always not recommended for those who don’t know how to kayak? This is because they risk their lives by using boats or kayaks on their own when they’re untrained.
On the other hand, those who’re experts in kayaking and balancing on the kayak need to know every little detail about their kayak. Hence, our topic for this article is “Do you need a fin on a kayak?” Follow along to see the detailed answer to this question.
What is a Kayak Skeg, and How Does It Work?
A kayak fin, also known as skeg or tracking fin, is used in the kayaks to maintain the kayak’s balance during harsh weather conditions. It helps in going straight and using the speed of the waves to go further without putting in any additional effort. This fin achieves its goal by trimming the boat.
Some short tour kayaks don’t have them, while others do. But mostly, the long tour kayaks or the ocean kayaks do have a fin under their deck. Sometimes, there’s just one fin, and some kayaks have two or three fins all at once for added tracking ability. But mostly, if a kayak already has one, the other two will be removable.
Kayak Skeg vs Rudder – What is the Difference?
Both the rudder and the skeg aim to keep the kayak going in one direction cutting through the waves. They become good support when there are sub-optimal weather conditions.
But there are some differences in both and some similarities too. So let’s take a look at them one by one.
- Skegs are permanently fixed to keep the boat going in one direction. In contrast, the rudder blades can steer the boat to the left or right.
- Rudders are attached at the stern, whereas the skegs are permanently fixed under the boat and work unidirectionally.
- Some kayaks even have the option to use the skeg partially if suitable. But with rudders, this is not the case; they are either fully up or fully down.
- The kayaks with rudders mounted do not support your legs and feet because the foot bracket moves while paddling. But skeg boats keep your legs and feet because they don’t move.
- The rudders’ steering system has a cable mechanism that is very complicated as compared to the simple skeg boats.
Do you need a fin on a kayak?
There are a lot of opinions about it. Some of the experts like to have one, and they think that this is necessary. But some expert kayakers recommend that you don’t need to have a fin on a kayak. Until you learn to balance and paddle all at once, when you are fully trained, they say that you should only use a fin when you go on long trips into the ocean.
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But some inflatable kayaks need to have a fin for proper tracking
Mostly, the inflatable kayaks are flat from the underside. So, it becomes challenging to keep tracking without a fin under that. And in harsh weather conditions, it becomes compulsory to have one under the inflatable kayak to proceed with an excellent approach to reach the goal.
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Some inflatable kayaks have three fins
Some inflatable kayaks have three fins under their flat bottom hull. Because as we have mentioned above, some experts think that the more the skegs, the better the tracking. Hence, they have their type of kayaks, which act well in terms of tracking.
So those three fins help a lot in tracking, but it is contradictory as some want it to be a little free for exploration requirements.
Conclusion
We have told you both the popular opinions of the experts about this question of “Do you need a fin on a kayak?” But we suggest you have at least one fin on your kayak for better tracking-ability. But, again, this is just a recommendation from our personal experience and not a compulsory requirement for kayaking.
Please share in the comment section which option you will opt for.