1988 Shoalwater 176 Rebuild

[Jaysen]

See, that makes me wonder if changing it is smart. General wisdom is that the skeg should term 18” forward of the tunnel. But 40yrs of practical usage says that maybe this location has been accounted for in the design.

[TomW1]

Jaysen a lot has been learned in the past 30+ years on tunnels and what should be led into them. Jacques explained it well on one of his tunnel designs. All the tunnels he designed in the last few years followed current practice and had the keel/skeg end short of the tunnel.

Tom

[Jaysen]

Congratulations on missing the point. If redfishjim has 40yrs using boat with no issues, is it worth the risk of changing the boat’s known behavior simply because “a lot has been learned”. I’m not saying that the ideal of 18” clean isn’t best but that making that change may cause changes to handling or other areas of performance. I’m not saying it will. I’m saying we don’t know.

Redfishjim, your call. I don’t think there’s certain harm. I don’t think there certain benefit either. I would be ready to rebuild the section you remove should you find there’s negative impacts from it.

[fallguy1000]

All his work is improving the boat. Keeping a clean flow into the tunnel is a sure improvement.

Removing it needs careful thought.

I thought you added the thing,

See if you can tell if the skegs are separate from tbe hull skin or integrated before you do more.

Let us know.

Jaysen and Tom are both correct, though. If the skeg is an added piece; you grind it off and use mat and epoxy to repair any low areas made hy grinding. If the hull skin is other than flat; we'd need to know before you grind it off.

If it is an added piece like it looks; that is easy.

[redfishjim]

The skeg is integrated with the hull. There's no added wooden board on top of the hull skill. The skeg was part of the hull mold when this was built. Here's a pic that shows from the interior.

[Jaysen]

I don’t know that I’d be too quick to cut that. Did you put a stringer in that interior channel?

[fallguy1000]

The only way to cut that is to do major reconstruction; so leave it.

But it is a design flaw in the hull.

If you ever experience prop blowout at top speed or inability to get to wot; you'll know the reason..

[redfishjim]

I appreciate the feedback, if the skeg topic came up a month ago, it'd be altered. But with the boat all sanded up ready for paint, the choice was easy for me. We got a shiny Matterhorn white boat now. I went a bit heavy on my 3rd coat, maybe sprayed a bit too quickly after the 2nd, and got a couple sags, not quite done before it gets flipped back over.

[cape man]

Oh hell yes! That is awesome! Way to go!

I stayed out of the skeg discussion, but fully agree with your decision.

[fallguy1000]

Painting is a critical milestone. Congrats.